Pingtung Temple-Side Tin House Drug Manufacturing, Police Seize Over 55 kg Raw Materials, 2 Indicted

Central News Agency (CNA) reporter Su Mu-chun, Taichung, April 14th. A man surnamed Cai set up a drug manufacturing factory in a tin house next to a temple in Pingtung County, using the scent of incense and joss paper to cover up the strong chemical odor produced during the drug manufacturing process. The Third Special Police Corps' First Brigade announced today that its Taichung investigation team, while tracking a drug case in Changhua County, uncovered a drug manufacturing group using a tin house behind a temple in Pingtung County as their base. The case was reported to the Changhua District Prosecutors Office and then directed by the Pingtung District Prosecutors Office, forming a special task force with units including the Pingtung County Police Bureau's Neipu Precinct. After reconnaissance, the task force found the factory in Wanluan Township, Pingtung County, to be remote and surrounded by forests, with only a temple nearby. Police disguised as temple visitors secretly collected evidence and found the manufacturing site to be extensive. Drones were used for aerial photography to understand the surrounding terrain and potential escape routes. In October 2025, police raided the factory, arresting the drug manufacturer surnamed Cai and an accomplice. They seized over 55 kg of precursor raw materials and chemical raw materials for manufacturing the Class 3 drug 'Miaomiao', including Class 4 drugs 2-bromo-4-methylpropiophenone and 1-methylphenyl-1-propanone. Police discovered that Cai deliberately chose a remote tin house behind a bustling temple to evade detection, using the burning incense and joss paper to mask the pungent chemical smell. Police estimated that if the seized drugs had entered the market, they could have been divided into over 20,000 'drug coffee bags' with a market value exceeding tens of millions of New Taiwan Dollars. Fortunately, the drugs were intercepted in time. Cai and the other individual were transferred to the Pingtung District Prosecutors Office for investigation after police questioning, and the prosecutor's office indicted them in March this year.