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Human trafficking ring busted, 11 suspects arrested
Central News Agency
2013-08-22 08:08 PM
Taipei, Aug. 22 (CNA) Taiwan police and immigration officers on Thursday busted a human trafficking ring, arresting 11 suspects on suspicion of forcing foreign women into prostitution.
The law enforcement officers broke into a building in Chiayi with a forklift and rescued 10 Indonesian women who were being held captive there, according to the Tainan District Prosecutors Office.
The authorities arrested one Indonesian and 10 Taiwanese suspects across several locations in the southern counties of Chiayi and Tainan and seized a gas gun, account books and six packets of drugs, the prosecutors' office said.
It said the traffickers were using the women to provide sex services to clients and charging NT$3,000 (US$100) to NT$5,000 per transaction.
Absconding female Indonesian workers in northern Taiwan were being recruited by a member of the ring, who is also an Indonesian woman, the office said.
She would tell the women they could earn huge sums by working as hostesses, which meant they would only be required to sing and drink with their clients, the office said.
Once the women arrived in southern Taiwan, the ring members would lock them in the Chiayi residence and keep them under control with the use of drugs, according to the prosecutors' office.
The women were sometimes sent to karaoke bars and betel nut shops in Tainan and other places in Chiayi to provide illegal sex services, the office said.
After interrogation, three of the 11 suspects, including the Indonesian woman, were detained, three were released on bail, and the others were released.
(By Christie Chen)
