A building in the Daliao District of Kaohsiung was used as a nightclub and a drug den on weekends, leading to the arrest of 64 Vietnamese nationals, including 14 reported missing from their workplaces, on June 22.
Police seized over 900 drug-laced instant coffee packets containing ketamine, amphetamine, cathinone, and some marijuana. About six mobile phones were confiscated, along with NT$1.73 million (US$53,200) in cash.
Four individuals have been charged with serious offenses, including a 67-year-old nightclub manager named Hsieh (謝), a 59-year-old accountant named Yen (顏), a 31-year-old drug trafficking suspect named Huang (黃), and a 42-year-old drug user named Hsieh (謝). All four have been handed over to the prosecution office for violating the Drug Hazard Prevention Act.
The Criminal Investigation Division of the Kaohsiung City Police Department issued a press release on Monday (July 1), stating that the weekend nightclub attracted over a hundred people each Friday and Saturday night. Staff at the venue are suspected of selling drugs disguised in instant coffee packets.
The police formed a task force to surveil the facility and track potential leads over several days. On June 22, a search warrant was issued, and a raid was conducted.
In addition to the Vietnamese nationals arrested, nine Taiwanese were present at the scene. A total of 73 individuals were detained in the raid.
Kaohsiung police stated that their cooperation with the recent anti-drug campaign by the Taiwan High Prosecutors Office has led to a total of 1,419 drug-related cases being detected from January 1 to June 27, an increase of 125 cases compared to the same period last year. In terms of drug seizures, they confiscated 21,438 drug-laced instant coffee packets, an increase of 9,891 packets from the same period last year.
