The Criminal Investigation Bureau recently busted a fraud ring located in a mountainous area in Nantou's Wujie Village. All 15 suspects are Taiwanese, and investigators are trying to find out if they had Chinese accomplices.
Armed police officers prepare to raid a fraud ring operations room in Nantou County's Wujie Village, taking back routes to avoid the fraud ring's surveillance cameras.
They enter through the back door of a galvanized steel building. The space is small, but has been divided into six rooms where 14 people are posing as Chinese Ministry of Public Security officials to defraud residents of Handan, Hebei Province.
The Criminal Investigation Bureau worked with the police departments of Changhua County and Nantou County to conduct the raid. Thirty police officers were involved, and had to climb a mountain in order to carry out the raid. The main suspect, a man surnamed Chen, had determined that this location in an indigenous village was not easy to get to, so he leased almost four hectares of land for NT$200,000 a year and recruited young people to join his fraud ring.
There were a total of 97 victims from Handan, Hebei Province, China. At present, we have determined that 3.1 million renminbi were defrauded. We brought along battering rams and slings, because the way up the mountain was rugged and uneven. We spent half an hour climbing up to get to the back door of the fraud ring's operations room.
The police said Chen does not appear to have any geographical connection with Handan, and the defrauded money was remitted to Taiwan through unknown channels. The police are trying to determine if he had any accomplices.