UPDATE 1-Texan running 3-D printed guns company arrested in Taiwan -officials


Devdiscourse News Desk | Updated: 21-09-2018 23:27 IST | Created: 21-09-2018 22:14 IST
UPDATE 1-Texan running 3-D printed guns company arrested in Taiwan -officials
  • Country:
  • United States

A Texan running a 3-D printed guns company who flew to Taiwan as police investigated an accusation that he had sex with an underage girl was arrested in Taipei on Friday after U.S. authorities annulled his passport, officials said.

Cody Wilson, 30, was taken to immigration authorities in the capital by officers from Taiwan's Criminal Investigation Bureau, according to local media reports and an official from the bureau who asked not to be named.

His exact status was unclear. The Taipei Times newspaper said he had been arrested and was in the custody of Taiwan's National Immigration Agency.

Wilson, who is at the center of a U.S. legal battle over his plan to publish instructions for the manufacture of 3-D printed plastic guns, flew into Taiwan legally, the country's National Immigration Agency said in a statement on Friday. Because his U.S. passport was later annulled, the agency's statement said, he "no longer has the legal status to stay in Taiwan."

A lawyer for Wilson and representatives of the Austin Police Department were not immediately available for comment.

The U.S. Marshals Service, in a statement, said it was aware of Wilson's arrest and that it was "fully engaged with our international partners on this matter."

Taiwan does not have an extradition treaty with the United States.

Austin police have said Wilson flew to Taiwan earlier this month after a friend told him officers were investigating an allegation by a 16-year-old girl who said she was paid $500 to have sex with him at a hotel in the Texas capital.

Police said investigators interviewed the girl and on Wednesday obtained a warrant for Wilson's arrest, but he had flown to Taiwan by then.

Police said they are aware that Wilson travels often for business, but that they do not know why he went to Taiwan.

Wilson is the founder of Defense Distributed, the focus of a legal and political battle over its placing on the internet blueprints for plastic guns that can be made with a 3-D printer.

The files could previously be downloaded for free, but a federal judge issued a nationwide injunction last month that blocked the posting of the blueprints online.

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