In the ROC, law enforcement agencies include the National Police Administration (NPA), the MJIB and the Military Police Command and the Customs Service. On July 1, 1994, Taiwan High Court's Public Prosecutor's Office set up a Supervisory Task Force to coordinate the Enforcement Task Force in each of the 19 District Public Prosecutor's Offices, which in turn directs the above drug enforcement agencies, in cases that transcend territorial jurisdictions. This move led to much better cooperation and coordination among these agencies; joint enforcement operations are no longer unusual. Meanwhile, as Taiwan has 1,1400 kilometers of coastline and most large-volume smugglings of narcotic drugs use sea routes, coastline patrol, a most effective but difficult work, has also been greatly strengthened in the past two years.
International cooperation is also important. In the last two years, the MJIB has called three international conferences to discuss drug enforcement problems with participants coming from more than 24 countries. The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) of the U.S. Department of Justice has shown interest in setting up an office in Taiwan to coordinate intelligence cooperation with the NPA and the MJIB. The NPA and MJIB are also building up ties with Southeast Asian countries near the Golden Triangle. On June 19, 1994, the MJIB, in cooperation with the Japanese police, broke a mainland Taiwan Japan methamphetamine smuggling ring where the Chinese mainland fishing boats were used by Taiwan and mainland drug dealers to transport 152 kilograms of amphetamine from the Chinese mainland to Japan. In 1995, MJIB also cooperated with other countries in controlled delivery cases where large amounts of drugs were eventually seized.
Thirdly, stricter regulation of precursor chemicals is key to our strategy. Taiwan produces no heroin, morphine or cannabis. Yet drug dealers used to smuggle ephedrine into Taiwan to synthesize methamphetamine. Meanwhile, industrial chemicals such as acetic anhydride can be used to produce heroin from morphine. There is a felt need to start regulating the importation and use of precursors, chemicals and solvents, as is required by the 1988 UN Convention against Illicit Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substance. (By the way, the ROC is not a party to the Convention and cannot become one due to Peking's deliberate obstruction). As of July 1995, the Department of Health and the Ministry of Economic Affairs have both taken steps to regulate pharmaceutical and industrial precursor chemicals. The Ministry of Justice has also added a provision to this effect to the revised Narcotics Eradication Statute during the legislative process.
The fourth area is controlling money laundering. The ROC has no such law except a few banking regulations to this effect. The Ministry of Justice has drafted a Money Laundering Control Law which was approved by the Cabinet and sent to the Legislative Yuan for its passage. During the deliberations the 40 recommendations by the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) of the G7 have been carefully considered. In fact, in April 1994, I received an FATF delegation led by Mr. John Gieve, British Treasury Department*s undersecretary of Banking Group, to exchange views on this issue. He was impressed with our progress in this regard.
The last area is tougher prosecution and sentencing for drug producers, dealers and traffickers. Since November 1993, three drug traffickers were executed, the first execution of drug offenders in 14 years. More indictments are expected in the future.
