On the evening of the 3rd, the Hengchun Coast Guard cracked down on the human-snake smuggling case, and seized 12 Vietnamese smugglers hiding in the cabin below the bridge of a suspicious fishing boat without fishing gear. The whole case was directed by the screen inspection to expand the investigation and handling of the sea patrol, police administration, and immigration, and to trace the source of the criminal group behind the scenes.

At 8:57 p.m., the Headquarters of the Eighth Patrol Area of ​​the Coast Guard discovered a suspicious fishing boat about 2 miles off the Dingliao River in Pingtung through the radar screen, and immediately integrated shore, sea, investigation, and police forces to deploy and round up. The Hengchun Coast Guard dispatched the online patrol boat PP3589 to check and arrived at the reporting position at 9:20.

The captain found that there was no fishing gear on board, and the catch was obviously suspicious. After boarding and inspection, he found 9 men and 3 women, a total of 12 Vietnamese stowaways hiding in the cabin below the bridge of the ship. 2062 boats and 3535 boats were urgently reinforced, and they jointly escorted the fishing boat involved in the case back to Fangliao fishing port at around 10:00 p.m.

After the case was heard, the case was investigated in violation of the “Entry, Exit and Immigration Law”, and reported to the Pingtung District Prosecutor’s Office to appoint prosecutor Lu Huizhen to direct the sea patrol, police administration, and immigration related units to expand the investigation to trace the source and trace the criminal group behind the scenes.

Due to the recent occurrence of suspected smugglers dumping bags and corpses at sea on the southwestern coast of Taiwan, the Hengchun Coast Guard has stepped up inspections of unknown targets in the sea during the 5-day holiday of Qingming. Patrols were carried out to intercept and round up, effectively preventing illegal fishing boats carrying stowaways from entering the country.

In addition, during the investigation last night, in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) epidemic prevention, the task force wore protective clothing, masks and other anti-epidemic equipment and implemented quarantine measures throughout the entire process. After testing, none of the people on board had fever or respiratory symptoms, and they were tested quickly. The screening of 12 persons involved in the case were all negative. The entire case was transferred to the immigration agency for custody after completing the quarantine prevention and resettlement procedures in accordance with the regulations.