Mask supplier detained for passing off non-medical masks
The owner of a company in Changhua County has been detained for allegedly supplying pharmacies in Nantou with non-medical grade surgical masks from unknown sources, prosecutors said yesterday.
The company is accused of procuring 610,000 masks from an unknown source and falsely labeling them to look as if they had been made by Hung Wei Medical Consumable Co.
Prosecutors said the company had deliberately branded the masks with a name that was very similar in Chinese to Hung Wei Medical, which would lead buyers to think the masks were produced by a participant in the National Face Mask Team.
In more positive news, leading mask maker CSD to spend NT$120 million on a new factory not far from its headquarters in Changhua City.
CSD currently produces over 700,000 masks per day, but once its new factory in Changhua County’s Huatan Township comes online, they expect to gradually expand to million masks per day.
Arrests made over 4-year-old’s death
Prosecutors in Nantou County announced Friday that they have evidence against a couple in connection with the death of a four-year-old girl, whose body was found in a shallow grave in a mountainous area in Nantou’s Mingjian Township on Thursday.
They noted that bruises and injuries were found on the body.
The biological mother and her boyfriend were placed in judicial detention after a judge denied their release on bail.
They face murder charges, along with charges of abandonment of a corpse.
The girl had been staying with her grandmother until May, but when she had been denied access to the child for two months, she alerted authorities in early July.
Investigators discovered surveillance footage of the boyfriend showing him picking up a little girl on June 7 and on the same day carrying a quilted bag out of a building, which he later admitted contained the body of the girl.
Prosecutors added that some of the couple’s friends and relatives have stated that the boyfriend had physically abused the girl while he was drunk or under the influence of drugs.
Prosecutors also questioned another who allegedly was asked to help transport and bury the body.
The couple denies the accusations and claimed that their daughter had drowned in their bathtub.
Five arrested over alleged gang beating murder
Five suspects have been detained after being questioned by prosecutors Monday, after a man was beaten to death and another was left with broken bones in an alleged gang-related incident.
In the wee hours last Thursday, the two victims were at a nightclub in Nantun District (南屯), which belongs to the Golden Jaguar Group.
According to investigators they were joined by the alleged assailants, and they all later left by the back door.
They then got into two waiting cars, which took them to a house in Nantou’s Shueili Township.
Following a tipoff, police arrived to find the murder victim naked and covered in blood, and a survivor with broken arms and a shattered shinbone.
Was allegedly beaten for 36 hours.
Nantou prosecutors said the two victims were allegedly also gang members who were money collectors for telecom scams.
They allegedly were skimming off the top, not reporting the correct amounts collected to their bosses.
Four of the suspects denied torturing the victims, saying that the fifth suspect was the culprit.
They claim they only watched and yelled.
They will face charges including assault, murder and forcible confinement.
Lead poisoning cases continue to rise
The number of lead poisoning cases among patients at two traditional Chinese medicine clinics has risen to 34.
Taichung health authorities have tested 457 patients of the clinics.
The also tested 374 samples of Chinese medicine.
The good news is that none of the 1,213 Chinese medicine retailers and 143 Chinese medicine clinics that they inspected had been found to have been selling products containing illicit ingredients.
Commonwealth poll bad news for Central Taiwan pols
A Commonwealth Magazine satisfaction poll on local leaders isn’t good news for Central Taiwan politicians.
Nantou County Commissioner Lin Ming-chen did the best, ranking number 14 out of 21, with a score of 69.7.
Taichung Mayor Lu Shiow-yen was ranked 18th, with a score of 59.7.
This was an improvement for the mayor, as in the last poll she ranked dead last.
Changhua’s Wang Hui-mei came in 19th, scoring 59.2.
In related news, Wang has some good news: After 22 years of deficits, her administration produced a surplus in 2019 of NT$70 million.
Ghost money shuts off TV, internet
A fire last Wednesday in Changhua’s Huatan Township destroyed TV and Internet cables, interrupting cable TV services at about 5,000 households and Internet at almost 600 for 12 hours.
The source, according to the Changhua Fire Department, McDonald’s employees were burning joss paper in a Ghost Festival ritual, and smoldering paper fell through a maintenance hole in the ground, melting the coverings of the cable laid underneath the sidewalk.
