Tag: drugs

Drugs are a growing problem in South Korea that hopefully this drug seizure will help to combat:

South Korea’s customs authorities and Coast Guard on Wednesday seized approximately 1 ton of smuggled cocaine on a foreign vessel docked on the country’s east coast, officials said.

The Donghae regional office of the Coast Guard and the Seoul Regional Customs deployed around 90 personnel to search the ship docked at a port in Gangneung after receiving a tip-off from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) at around 6:30 a.m.

The FBI had warned that a 32,000-ton carrier suspected of carrying drugs was entering Korean waters on the day, according to the officials.

The Norwegian-flagged vessel is believed to have departed from Mexico and traveled through Ecuador, Panama and China before arriving in Korea.

Authorities discovered 50 boxes each containing about 20 kilograms of cocaine hidden aboard the ship.

The seized drugs have an estimated market value of 500 billion won (US$341.7 million), equivalent to around two million doses.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Another sign that Korea’s drug problem continues to spread:

Members of a college social club comprising hundreds of members from South Korea’s 13 colleges, including the nation’s most prestigious schools like Seoul National University and Korea University, administer drugs at an amusement park. (Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office)

A 30-something graduate student at KAIST, South Korea’s top science-specialized university, was recently arrested by the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors’ Office for distributing and using drugs within a social fraternity he created in 2021 which included members from 13 other elite universities.

Three other university students were also apprehended, and two others were indicted without physical detention for breaching the Narcotics Control Act. Eight other students who took drugs but were not suspected of other offenses were granted deferred prosecution on condition they participated in a rehabilitation program.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

You would think these idiots would do a Google search to see how many former USFK servicemembers have been caught smuggling drugs through the mail to realize it is not worth it:

This photo provided by police shows a raid on the home of a USFK soldier suspected of being involved in drug trafficking. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

A United States Forces Korea (USFK) service member has been arrested on charges of smuggling drugs from the U.S. via military mail and using, selling or distributing them in South Korea, police said Wednesday.

The 24-year-old service member is accused of illegally importing 350 ml of synthetic cannabis through USFK mail between February last year and May this year, and smoking, selling or distributing them to USFK soldiers and others together with two civilian women, according to the Gyeonggi Pyeongtaek Police Station.

The service member assigned to Camp Humphreys in Pyeongtaek, 61 kilometers south of Seoul, allegedly used plastic containers for drug smuggling, taking advantage of the fact that it is not easy to distinguish between liquid synthetic cannabis and liquid electronic cigarettes. 

The smuggled drugs have been mostly sold to U.S. soldiers stationed in Pyeongtaek and Dongducheon, 41 km north of Seoul, through the two women and five others, the police station said.

It said the two women — a South Korean and a Filipino — have been arrested on drug trafficking charges and transferred to the prosecution for indictment. In addition, 17 other U.S. soldiers have been apprehended and sent to the prosecution without detention on suspicion of being involved in the purchases and sales of the banned substance.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Korea has got to make sure they don’t allow drugs to become a major social problem like it has become in many western nations where it drives crime and homelessness:

Korea’s customs agency said Tuesday it has captured a record amount of drugs in the first half of this year, enough to be used by more than 5 million people.

The amount of illegal drugs seized at borders jumped 39 percent on-year to 329 kilograms during the January-June period, according to the data compiled by the Korea Customs Service (KCS).

It is the largest ever figure for any first six months of a year, and the confiscated amount this year can be used by 5.05 million people at the same time.

But the number of smuggling attempts fell 12 percent on-year to 325 cases, as the average volume involved in a single case has grown, the agency added.

The growth in drug smuggling came as Korea tightened its border control, coupled with the growing demand for narcotics here and the subsequent rising prices, the KCS said.

Of the 325 cases, 45.8 percent, or 149 cases, were carried out through international mail, followed by express cargo with 92 cases and air travelers with 81.

By type, methamphetamine accounted for 42.5 percent of the drugs seized, followed by hemp with 25.2 percent and ketamine with 7.3 percent.

By origin, the United States and Thailand accounted for 24.3 percent of the volume, or 80 kg, each, followed by Laos with 11.85 percent and Vietnam with 9.7 percent. China accounted for 5.8 percent, or 19 kg, the data showed. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I wonder how many of the Americans caught smuggling are the idiots trying to mail themselves marijuana thinking they won’t get caught?

I did not realize there was that many Vietnamese in the southwest Gyeongi-do area to support their own club, much less one trafficking in illegal drugs:

South Korean police on Saturday arrested 10 people for suspected illegal drug use after raiding a foreigners-only club in Siheung, Gyeonggi Province.

According to officials, five police stations across the provincial cities of Siheung, Osan, Hwaseong and Ansan conducted a joint crackdown of a local club located in Jeongwang-dong, Siheung, arresting two Koreans and eight Vietnamese. One of the Koreans was a man in his 40s who owns the club — operated exclusively for Vietnamese — while three of the Vietnamese were club workers.

The police raided the venue after receiving a tip-off that “100 people were doing drugs at a Vietnamese club.” Officials ran drug tests on the 70 people who were at the club and arrested 10 people who tested positive.

Korea Herald

You can read more at the link.

President Obrador actually brings up good points, but it is laughable to think his letter is going to stop the fentanyl exports from China. I personally believe the fentanyl exports from China is part of their grand strategy to weaken the U.S. from within. They saw this happen to them during the Opium Wars and it was a widely successful strategy for the British to weaken China in the early to mid 1800’s. They are simply implementing this same strategy on the U.S. now:

On Tuesday, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador asked China for help curbing Mexico’s production of fentanyl, despite his claim last month that Mexico neither produces nor consumes the drug.

López Obrador has previously expressed outrage with lawmakers from the U.S. putting the blame at Mexico’s feet and suggesting U.S. military intervention. He continued to vent his frustrations Tuesday in a letter to Chinese president Xi Jinping.

“Unjustly, they are blaming us for problems that in large measure have to do with their loss of values, their welfare crisis,” he wrote to Xi, as quoted in the Associated Press. “These positions are in themselves a lack of respect and a threat to our sovereignty, and moreover they are based on an absurd, manipulative, propagandistic and demagogic attitude.”

However, López Obrador also brought up Chinese exports of fentanyl precursors that are ending up in the hands of the cartels.

National Review

You can read more at the link.