Fridae

Ninety-three men were arrested at a makeshift nightclub on Saturday after police seized more than 100 ecstasy pills and ketamine, local media reported.

Police said that the illegal dance club in Chungshan District's Nongan Street had been crudely converted from a small 1,080 square feet apartment, which had been sound proofed.

Yuanshan Police Station chief Lin Kuo-ping said that informants had the tipped the police off two days earlier after finding out about the party on the Internet. He said that the police found "several dozen used condoms" and tissues littering the floor and one room in the flat was used specifically for sex.

Many of the men were under the influence of drugs during the raid and wore only underwear.

Gary Yang Kuei-kuang, the flat's owner, said that most of the partygoers were normal "nine-to-five people" who used to party at the predominantly gay but now-defunct "TeXound" nightclub, where drug use was not uncommon.

(TeXound, which has been Taiwan's only licensed non-commercial electronic music club and longest-running dance club, closed on Jan 10 as constant harassment by the police wore down the punters as police conducts checks every single Friday and Saturday. The high-profile arrests of Taiwanese TV show host Anya and Hong Kong's William So for being under the influence of ecstacy led to an outcry, which closed the club down temporarily in 2002.)

The 32-year-old said that due to frequent police raids at the club, the men had to rent an apartment to hold parties in private. Yang had also allegedly provided free condoms for the guests who had paid NT$250 (US$7.50) to join the parties. He said that he said hosted three such parties since he and his "lover" Sung Chih-wei, 28, had just rented the apartment a month ago.

The most recent report by TV station TVBS had revealed that 13 of the 93 men are HIV-positive while tabloids said that the straight policemen who participated in the raid were so affected by the smell of semen that they could barely eat breakfast the next day.

Update (posted Jan 21):
According to local reports, the Department of Health's Center for Disease Control (CDC) confirmed on Tuesday that 28 of the men were HIV-positive after one of the men admitted to being infected with HIV/Aids. A check with the health authorities revealed that another 27 were also HIV-positive.

Under the country's AIDS Prevention Law, HIV is designated as a legally reported disease and doctors who find that a patient has HIV must report that person to the government within 24 hours.

CDC Director-General Su Ih-jen said that the rest of the men at the party would be tested for the virus again in six months, as authorised by the HIV Prevention Law which also states that any person who has sex or shares injections with other people to intentionally spread HIV may face up to seven years in jail. Police said it would be difficult to figure out whether the men had sex during the party.