The former leader of one of Taiwan’s leading organized crime syndicates—the Bamboo Union
—was among the four men arrested Saturday in a police raid on a house in the capital’s Tuol Kok district, Taiwanese newspapers reported Monday.
Chen Chi-li, 58, was arrested along with three other men for possessing assault rifles, handguns and a grenade launcher without proper permit or license.
The prominent suspect, who apparently has been based in Cambodia for several years, is also an ex-adviser to Senate and CPP President Chea Sim, Chea Sim’s protocol chief Kunthea Borei confirmed Monday.
However, military and municipal police officials refused to comment Monday on the arrest of Chen Chi-li, who holds the honorary Cambodian title Okhna, bestowed upon civilians who donate generously to government officials and projects.
Khieu Kanharith, the government’s spokesman, said Monday that Cambodian authorities can not yet positively identify Chen Chi-li as a Taiwanese crime chief.
“We are finding out his past
history and connection with crime….We do not know if this is the right person. He has the same name but we are not sure of his identity,” Khieu Kanharith said.
According to a senior municipal official who requested anonymity, reports that Chen Chi-li is a former Taiwan gang boss are true.
News of the arrest caused a flurry of articles in regional newspapers Monday.
The China Post referred to Chen Chi-li as “one of Taiwan’s most wanted gangsters” who made his name in plotting the 1984 killing of Henry Liu, 56, a dissident Taiwanese writer who was gunned down in the vicinity of San Francisco in the US.
The Taipei Times reported concern from Taiwan police officials who noted that no extradition treaties exist with Cambodia by which Chen Chi-Li can be sent back to Taiwan to face standing criminal charges there.
The newspaper also reported that key Bamboo Union members in the region, as well as a Cambodian general, have mobilized support to place pressure on Cambodian authorities to release Chen Chi-li.
“Sources say that a high-level intermediary, believed to be a Cambodian general…has rushed back to Phnom Penh to meet with Hun Sen to figure a way to have Chen released,” the Taipei Times reported .
Municipal Court Prosecutor Ngeth Sarath said Monday that the case has not yet been passed on to him by Military Police officials, who took over the arrest operation from Municipal police late Saturday afternoon. “The Military Police are continuing their investigation to find more evidence,” Ngeth Sarath said.
Sao Sokha, commander of national Military Police forces, declined to comment Monday about the suspect or the arrest, and referred questions to a close adviser to Hun Sen.
Chen Chi-li came to the attention of municipal officials following a recent interview he gave with a Taiwanese film crew who were in Phnom Penh recently to report on the June 29 contract killing of Taiwanese Businessman Lee Chim Hsin.
Chen Chi-li, who criticized the security situation in Cambodia during the interview, was seen on Taiwanese television with numerous weapons in his house on Street 592, said Klang Huot, governor of Tuol Kok district.
“I went to [Chen Chi-li’s] house to ask him why in the television interview he said it cost $3,000 to have someone killed [in Cambodia],” said Klang Huot, adding that during their meeting he noticed gun racks in the Taiwanese man’s house.
Governor Chea Sophara later ordered the arrest of Chen Chi-li for possessing illegal weapons, Klang Huot said.
“Even the bedrooms had gun racks and there were guns in wardrobes.”
Police also discovered a number of passports bearing the names of the men arrested Saturday, including a diplomatic passport, Municipal Police Chief Suon Chhengly said Sunday.
According to foreign news reports, Chen Chi-li and fellow Bamboo Union gang member Wu Tun, along with Wang Hsi-ling—former head of the now defunct Taiwanese Defense intelligence Bureau—were released from a Taiwanese prison in 1991 after serving six years of life sentences for killing Liu.
Chen Chi-li reportedly fled Taiwan to Cambodia in 1997 after the government placed the eight leaders of the four biggest Taiwanese triad gangs on a wanted list, the Singapore Straits Times reported in a 1997 article.
In mid-1998, Chen Chi-li was reported by the China News to have helped secure the release of a Taiwanese businessman kidnapped in Phnom Penh by paying some of a $100,000 ransom.
Liu, a writer for the Chinese-language San Francisco Journal and author of a critical biography of Taiwan’s former President Chiang Ching-kuo, was killed in his garage in Daly City, California.
Although it paid Liu’s widow $1.5 million in an out-of-court settlement in 1990, the Taiwanese government has denied any involvement in Liu’s murder, stating that Wang acted alone when he hired the gang members to kill the writer.
