Thread: Largest-ever human trafficking ring busted

June 19, 2009 9:30 am TWN, The China Post news staff
Largest-ever human trafficking ring busted

TAIPEI, Taiwan -- The National Immigration Agency (NIA) announced yesterday that it has smashed the largest ever human trafficking ring involving suspects from Taiwan, Hong Kong, China and the United States. At least 74 people have been apprehended for investigation after more than 40 Chinese female teenagers illegally entered the U.S. with their assistance.

The large-scale cross-border human smuggling operation was uncovered by NIA agents under the Ministry of Interior in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, a spokesman for the NIA's Border Affairs Corps said at a news conference.

The 74 Taiwanese suspects of the ring were turned over to the Taoyuan Prosecutors Office for further investigation, the spokesman said.

According to the initial investigation, a Chinese man surnamed Wang was the mastermind of the illicit operation, which helped female Chinese teenagers obtain passports of the Republic of China altered with their photos.

The fake passports were then used to apply for valid U.S. visas so that the women could enter the United States using the forged passports.

A Taiwanese accomplice surnamed Yang was allegedly responsible for swindling local young girls' ID documents from their parents, mainly in eastern Taiwan's Hualien County.

A travel agency manager identified as Liao used the documents to apply for ROC passports and for U.S. visas, which were later replaced with photos of the young Chinese women.

NIA officials said Liao was able to obtain genuine ROC passports and valid U.S. visas for Chinese women seeking to smuggle into the United States, as the Taipei office of the American Institute in Taiwan (AIT) does not require Taiwanese applicants younger than 14 years old to present themselves for a face-to-face interview.

After Liao got the passports, someone else would take them to Hong Kong, where Taiwanese women hired by the syndicate would accompany these Chinese women to travel to the United States by serving as chaperones.

More than 30 Taiwanese women, some of whom were college lecturers with high education, former flight attendants and nurses, were employed to accompany the Chinese women on various trips.

They were paid US$1,000 to US$1,500 in reward for each trip in addition to traveling costs. Some of these Taiwanese women claimed to have no knowledge about the scheme.

They said they were tricked into believing that the Chinese girls were children of Taiwanese investors in China who were tied up with busy business schedules and needed someone to accompany their children for the trip to the U.S.

Citing information provided by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, officials of the NIA corps said more than 40 Chinese female teenagers have successfully entered the United States using the forged ROC passports under the fraudulent scheme.

Each of these Chinese women paid US$60,000 to US$70,000 to be smuggled into the United States and stay there. The U.S. authorities strongly suspect that they might be eventually illegally engaged in prostitution in the country, the corps said.

Meanwhile, Hualien County police authorities said they have launched an in-depth investigation into the case.

They suspect that personal data of young girls at some local aboriginal villages were illegally sold to criminal elements.

The indigenous girls' families said they were fooled into thinking the people who took their daughters' documents would help their family apply for government subsidies.

Officials said they will look into the allegation that the suspect surnamed Yang could have paid a price to buy the native girls' personal data with a price from their parents and then resold the materials to the syndicate.

http://www.chinapost.com.tw/taiwan/nati ... -human.htm

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