Taipei: Prosecutors have indicted 34 people for allegedly illegally dumping construction waste at multiple farmland sites in Kaohsiung, generating more than NT$62 million (US$1.97 million) in illicit profits.
According to Focus Taiwan, the Kaohsiung District Prosecutors' Office released the indictment Thursday, stating that the main suspect, a man surnamed Huang, signed a contract with a construction company in 2024 to handle the removal and disposal of construction waste from a multistory parking facility at Kaohsiung International Airport.
In 2025, Huang represented a company that secured a similar contract for a social housing project in Zuoying District, based on the indictment. Prosecutors revealed that Huang and others obtained approval documents to transport the waste to two legal soil and gravel facilities.
However, during 2025, Huang allegedly instructed his staff to deceive truck drivers into merely entering the authorized facilities, pretending to unload the waste by tilting their truck beds and leaving without actually disposing of the waste, according to the indictment. Instead, the waste was illegally dumped on multiple farmland sites in Daliao District, Kaohsiung.
Huang allegedly compensated farmland owners NT$200 to NT$400 per truckload, convincing them that the waste could be used to elevate their land, as per the indictment. To facilitate further illegal dumping, the suspects excavated the land to about 4 meters deep, disposing of 1,938 truckloads of waste, equaling approximately 18,600 cubic meters, prosecutors reported.
The prosecutors also alleged that operators of the authorized soil and gravel facilities falsified disposal manifests and entered incorrect data into the government's construction waste information system. Manifests seized during the investigation suggested that 4,045 truck trips involving illegal dumping occurred over three months, earning over NT$62 million in illicit profits.
Upon receiving disposal fees from construction companies, Huang allegedly paid the authorized facilities for enabling the "site loops," according to prosecutors. The indictment covered Huang, his company, operators of the authorized facilities, and others involved, totaling 34 people and six companies, for alleged breaches of the Waste Disposal Act and other regulations.
Prosecutors recommended prison sentences exceeding four years and 10 months for Huang and other key defendants.