TAIPEI: Taiwan Bureau of Investigation announced here the other day that it has busted a smuggling ring which has imported an amount of methamphetamine rarely seen in recent years.
The bureau said it had seized a total of 118 kilograms of the drug, and arrested the main suspect, surnamed Shen, who was later turned over to New Taipei prosecutors.
The prosecutors have taken Shen into custody after a district court granted their request to detain him.
According to investigators, the group used overcoats imported from China as a cover to get the drugs into Taiwan. They said each of the hidden pockets in the lining of the back of the overcoats were filled with packets of the drugs.
Even though the overcoats appeared normal, their weight indicated that something was amiss, investigators said.
They eventually seized 243 packets of drugs, ranging in weight from 50 grams to 1 kilogram. Had the packets hit the market, they would have provided enough methamphetamines for 4.7 million street meth dosages, the bureau estimated.