TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — A search turned up 2.3 kilograms of heroin in the luggage of a US traveler arriving at Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport from Cambodia, the Aviation Police Bureau said Tuesday.
X-ray checks by customs and aviation police at the airport’s Terminal 2 in December focused suspicion on a 62-year-old US citizen, per CNA. Inside his suitcase, officers found drugs hidden between sheets of kraft paper.
The suspect said he had contacted strangers online who told him to fly to Cambodia. In the Southeast Asian country, a woman he did not know gave him the luggage to take to Taiwan, according to police.
Apart from paying his travel expenses, the drug smugglers had told the suspect they would give him a bank card allowing him to withdraw an unspecified amount of money, police said. Taoyuan District Prosecutors Office will handle the case.
Smuggling Category 1 drugs such as heroin can result in a death sentence or life in prison and a fine of up to NT$30 million (US$943,000). The Aviation Police Bureau called on the public not to accept money from strangers to bring luggage into the country.
