A coconspirator in a 1,200kg drug trafficking plot sentenced to 15 yearsStaff writer, with CNAThe Kaohsiung District Court yesterday sentenced a man to 15 years in prison for his role in a scheme to smuggle more than 1.2 tonnes of methamphetamine and ketamine into Taiwan on a rented cargo ship. Lee Hsin (李鑫) and several others planned and recruited accomplices to smuggle the drugs into Taiwan from overseas in 2023, the verdict showed. Lee Hsin advised the main suspect in the plot, Lee Chien-liang (李建良), to use an agency to set up an overseas shell company and lease the cargo ship Fei Yan to evade detection, it said. Additionally, a hired captain and crew, who were not part of the criminal operation, accompanied the drugs aboard the cargo ship, prosecutors said. The court sentenced Lee Hsin to 15 years in prison for drug trafficking, citing his role in planning the crime, his continued denials of guilt, and the public safety risk posed by such a large quantity of drugs.

Source: Taipei Times March 10, 2026 17:17 UTC