Police seize NT$230 million worth of pot plants in eastern Taiwan’s Taitung City

Taiwan News 
Date: 2018/12/13
By: Keoni Everington, Taiwan News, Staff Writer

Marijuana field found by police. (By Central News Agency)

TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Police raided the largest marijuana growing operation in Taiwan’s history in Taitung City earlier this month, including 794 cannabis plants, each of which grew to about 200 centimeters in height, and were valued at a market price of over NT$200 million, reported CNA.

The Taitung investigative team of the Coast Guard recently received a tip that the telltale smell of marijuana had been emanating from what was supposed to be a “betel leaf garden” under Fengyuan Bridge in Taitung City. Team members disguised themselves as farmers, surveilled the field, and noticed that the smell of the so-called “betel leaf plant”s was very similar to that of marijuana plants.

After searching for and tracking the growers, the Coast Guard set up a special team with the Taitung County Police Bureau and Gusheng Precinct of the Kaohsiung Police Department to investigate the marijuana growing operation and report their findings to the Taitung District Prosecutor’s Office. On Dec. 3, a team of 10 officers was mobilized to raid the field.    [FULL  STORY]