Gang of Thieves Arrested After Digging Tunnel to Steal Oil from Pipeline

I did not realize that oil theft was such a common crime in South Korea that the police regularly monitor the pipelines:

This photo, released by the Iksan Police Station in South Korea`s southwestern province of North Jeolla on Aug. 23, 2017, shows a tunnel that a gang of oil pilferers dug in Okcheon, central South Korea. (Yonhap)

Police said Wednesday they have arrested two members of a six-man theft ring accused of having dug a 40-meter tunnel in South Korea’s central province of North Chungcheong for more than one month to pilfer oil from an underground pipeline.

The Iksan Police Station in southwestern South Korea also booked an accomplice and the owner of a gas station involved in the alleged distribution of stolen oil without physical detention.

The gang, including its leader surnamed Lee, met at a warehouse in the town of Okcheon in the province in March and began to dig the tunnel with shovels and hoes to access the supply pipeline of the state-run Daehan Oil Pipeline Corp.

After 45 days of digging, the thieves reached an underground oil pipeline and started to steal oil through a rubber hose they linked to the pipeline, according to the police. They loaded 10,000 to 20,000 liters of the stolen oil a day onto a truck remodeled into a tanker.

According to the police, the oil pilferers installed a CCTV near the tunnel to monitor for police crackdowns. In the last three months, they managed to steal 370,000 liters of oil worth 480 million won (about $423,300) from the pipeline.   [Korea Herald]

You can read the rest at the link.

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Flyingsword
Flyingsword
7 years ago

Sounds like Nigeria not Korea, but happens everywhere. In the states they are stealing gas from the pump with credit card skimmers. Safer than drilling into a pipeline. http://www.foxnews.com/auto/2017/08/11/black-market-fuel-is-making-millions.html

Ole Tanker
Ole Tanker
7 years ago

More lucrative than a case of MGD back in the day. They should have done R&D on the theft techniques from former and present AAFES employees. .

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