Gangsters and Onions Redux

Taiwan's underworld, never one to miss an opportunity, attempted to turn the recent onion crisis to its own advantage as police arrest underworld leader for manipulating vegetable prices

Alleged underworld leader "Smart" Kuo and three of his accomplices were arrested, yesterday, in connection with a bid to push up the price of scallion in Yilan County.

According to the police, Kuo ordered his subordinates to store large quantities of scallion and then raised prices for the vegetable after Typhoon Haitang. Due to a lack of scallion in other counties, its price in Yilan Country eventually rose to NT$320 per kilogram.

Kuo then blocked off roads and forced vegetable vendors to sell their scallion supplies to him, police said.

I had blogged on this before. Many traditional vegetable markets, and vegetable marketing, are gangster controlled.

[Taiwan]