Police said Friday they had arrested eight individuals in connection with the deaths of three people kidnapped and imprisoned along with 32 others by a Zhongli-based extortion ring.
In a statement, police in New Taipei said they uncovered three dead following a raid in Zhongli in which 32 captives, whom the suspects had kidnapped and tortured to gain access to their bank accounts, were also freed.
According to police, information on computers found during the raid led to the discovery of two bodies in Taoyuan’s Guishan District.
Police said they had identified the two deceased as a woman surnamed Huang (黃), 45, and a man surnamed Lin (林), 57.
Meanwhile, authorities are still searching for the body of a 38-year-old man surnamed Huang (黃), who is believed to have died after falling from the 11th floor of a building.
Based on information found at the scene, police believe that the suspects hid Huang’s body in a location near the Sun Moon Lake National Scenic Area in Nantou County.
Chang Chun-min (張俊民), deputy head of the Criminal Investigation Corps under the New Taipei City Police Department, told CNA that the suspects had lured the captives to the Zhongli location on the pretense of interviewing for a high-paying job.
Chang said that the suspects then confiscated the captives’ identity documents, passbooks, and personal seals and demanded that they surrender their bank account passwords.
According to Chang, the suspects likely used the bank accounts as proxies for laundering money or other types of fraud.
Police said they had arrested the alleged ringleader, a 21-year-old man surnamed Chang (張), and seven others on suspicion of homicide, engagement in organized crime, fraud, assault, and unlawful imprisonment during the Zhongli raid.
Police added that they had found airsoft guns, retractable batons, handcuffs, and tasers at the scene.
According to one of the freed captives, the suspects pepper sprayed and electrocuted those who were uncooperative or talked to others.
Authorities believe there is a link between the kidnappings in Zhongli and a similar operation uncovered in a raid in New Taipei’s Tamsui on Nov. 2, in which police arrested eight people over the illegal imprisonment and torture of 26.
Work was underway to trace cash flows to and from the Tamsui and Zhongli sites and track down potential accomplices, according to police.

Source: Focus Taiwan News Channel