College student sentenced to 15-year prison term for picking up drug package
A fourth-year college student was sentenced to a 15 years and two months prison term for picking up a package of heroin on behalf of another man
in Taichung City two years ago.
According to reports, the 24-year-old man named Lin met a man nicknamed King Dinosaur (real name Chen, 38) at a nightclub in Taichung City in August 2017. Realizing Lin was short of money, Chen offered him an easy way of earning cash, by obtaining mobile phones from telecommunications companies on Chen’s behalf. For each phone Lin obtained, Chen paid him NT$3,000.
Having obtained Lin’s trust, in November 2017, Chen offered Lin a sum of NT$150,000 to pick up a package from the management office of a residential building in Taichung City.
Unknown to Lin, the package contained 13 kilograms of heroin, that had been identified by customs officers at the Taipei Taoyuan International Airport. Police investigators had allowed the package to be forwarded to its destination in order to arrest the recipient.
When Lin picked up the package, officers lying in ambush swooped and made the arrest.
The prosecution pointed out that the drugs had originated in Thailand, and had entered the country hidden in latex pillows contained in three boxes.
Lin said that he knew that the packages were suspicious, but didn’t know they contained drugs.
Police arrested Chen in July this year. Chen was sentenced to a prison term of 16 years and 6 months. Lin was sentenced to a term of 15 years and 2 months by the Taichung District Court today, November 18.
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Investigators really messed up by arrest the guy upon pickup. If they knew the amount of drugs, they should have let the package through to the final destination. Surveillance any activity of the house and the people there. Build a bigger case, arrest a network of middle men, dealers and financiers. See if there is a gang connection. See if some of the money warns goes to corruption. There is a lot to learn from following it, rather than a quick arrest. And plus, you know how many kg is in the package, so you can always back track to find the drugs already sealed or moved.
Yes, exactly like the other commentor said. Also it is fuking BANANAS to slap 15 years sentence, for a 15-year old kid who was manipulated to be a drug mule. By the bigger fish, who got only year bigger sentence than the kid like what the actual hell? That is just insane, and also really bad police work because they could of found out a lot more than just obtain one kid and one guy above him.