Tag: drugs

This was the big news over the weekend in Korea and another one of these only in Korea stories:

Earlier this week, Chun Woo-won, a grandson of former authoritarian President Chun Doo-hwan, shocked many with revelations about his family’s extravagant lifestyles paid for with money from slush funds. On Friday, the grandson again caught many by surprise by using drugs live on a YouTube broadcast from his New York apartment.

The former president died in November 2021 aged 90. Convicted of treason and bribery, he refused to comply with a forfeiture order ― almost 92.5 billion won ($70.5 million) of the money in question remains unrecovered. 

The grandson wrote he would “reveal everything” on his Instagram account around 4 p.m. Thursday (local time), and began livestreaming around 5 p.m., according to news reports. 

First, Chun apologized for what his family had done and said that he is also a criminal and should be arrested. Then, he mentioned the names of drugs and appeared to use them. He appeared to quickly lose control of his body, shaking badly and rolling on the floor. 

The livestream, which had been on for an hour-and-a-half was stopped when authorities entered his apartment and dragged him out. The video has since been removed from YouTube. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but I think anyone with half a brain knew the Chun family had long been hiding money considering the luxurious lifestyle they had been living. Based on what he says in the video it appears most of this money is likely in the U.S. where he resides. Hopefully this guy gets the drug rehab and mental help he clearly needs.

That is a lot of meth, hopefully they keep this guy in jail to do his full sentence:

A regional court meted out a 30-year prison term to a man on Thursday on charges of smuggling in 902 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico, the biggest amount of drug smuggling ever in South Korea, officials said. 

The 38-year-old, whose name was withheld, was accused of bringing in the drugs in December 2019 and July 2020 from Mexico in collusion with an international crime ring. 

He and his accomplice allegedly imported the drugs hidden inside helical gears and smuggled 498 kilograms back to Australia, according to court records. 

Worth about 3 trillion won (US$2.1 billion) in retail price and enough for 30 million doses, the smuggled drugs mark the biggest ever amount brought into the country in its drug smuggling history.

Yonhap

You can read more at the link.

Here is the latest sign of the growing drug problem in South Korea:

The Yoon Suk-yeol administration is assembling a task force to fight the drug trade and the use of drugs, according to a number of administration sources who spoke off the record.    
   
“Preparations for a war on drugs is happening at a fast pace,” a high-ranking presidential official told the JoongAng Ilbo by phone Sunday. “It is a matter of the country protecting its people.”  
   
The initiative comes as Korea faces a flood of illegal substances from overseas and as the use of drugs becomes more widespread in a society once known as essentially drug free.  (…..) 

The “war on drugs” will involve the formation of a pan-governmental joint investigation team with the prosecution and police partnered with related agencies, such as the National Intelligence Service (NIS) and the Korea Customs Service, the sources said.  
   
Large cities, like Seoul, Busan and Incheon, are expected to be key areas for the crackdown to block the entry of drugs into Korea.    
   
“The prosecution has already started the basic work to crack down on the overseas supply chain,” a member of the conservative People Power Party (PPP) said.  

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is something that the ROK government needs to stop or they are going to end up with a large drug addicted homeless population like we have in the US:

“Do you want to try it? It feels really good, and it helps you lose weight too. One time can’t hurt.”  
   
Those were the words heard by a 17-year-old student as she was handed a syringe by a man in his thirties, whom she met through a slightly older friend.  

He was lying. The first time led to another, and another — and an addiction.

Arrested by the police last year, the 17-year-old student admitted she made a mistake taking that first injection. But the older man wasn’t honest at all with her. “If I knew it was methamphetamine inside that syringe, I would have never done it in the first place.”  

Korea is developing a teen drug problem, its size difficult to estimate. One indication: over 100 million individual purchases every year of drugs from overseas, according to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

Importing, manufacturing, trading, buying, selling, transporting, possessing, and using drugs are all considered drug crimes in Korea.   (……)

“Based on the UN’s standards, if the number of drug offenders exceeds 20 in a population of 100,000, it means that drugs aren’t under control and it is not a drug-free nation,” said Cheon young-hoon, a psychiatric specialist and director of Incheon Chamsarang Hospital.    
   
“Considering Korea’s population of 50 million, the number of drug offenders per 100,000 is actually more than 30.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is a lot of meth that was interdicted in Busan:

South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have busted the nation’s largest-ever drug trafficking attempt with an arrest of a man in his 30s in the southern port city of Busan.

The Busan District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a 34-year-old man on charges of smuggling over 400 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico.

The prosecution said the volume of methamphetamine seized from the suspect totaled 404.23 kg, the largest amount in the nation’s history of drug smuggling.

The seized drugs, which can be administered to 13.5 million people at the same time, is worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.12 billion) in terms of retail price.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Things just went from bad to worse for television personality Robert Holley:

Police said Wednesday they began investigating naturalized television personality Robert Holley last year after an alleged drug user claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and the two had used methamphetamine together.

After being placed under immediate arrest on Monday at a parking lot in western Seoul for illegally purchasing methamphetamine online and using it, Holley – also known by his Korean name Ha Il – attended a warrant hearing for his arrest in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday. 

“To my family, friends and the public who have protected me for all this time, I want to say I apologize,” Holley told reporters as he entered the courthouse.

The court rejected the detention warrant Wednesday evening, setting Holley free. It said it was hard to believe Holley would destroy evidece.

According to the Anyang Dongan Police Precinct, which investigated Holley’s case, this was the third time the law enforcement authorities have probed him for drug use, after inconclusive attempts in July 2017 and March 2018. 

In last year’s attempt, according to Anyang police, a 34 year-old man arrested for drug use, identified only by his surname Cho, claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and that they had taken meth together before engaging in sexual intercourse. Police said they confirmed that Cho had visited Holley’s home multiple times through CCTV footage, and had other evidence for Cho’s claims. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is a strange story of a Mormon missionary turned international lawyer and Korean citizen arrested for using drugs in South Korea:

Mark Peterson, professor emeritus at Brigham Young University in Utah, claimed Tuesday that popular TV personality Robert Holley, known by the Korean name Ha Il, who was arrested for allegedly using methamphetamine, was the victim of “dirty” Korean cops. 

In a posting on historian Robert Neff’s Facebook, Peterson, a Korea Times columnist, wrote: “Rob’s a friend of mine. The police have been dogging him for about a year because another entertainer who is guilty has accused Rob as a way of lightening his own sentence. 

“Rob refutes every accusation, and the police will not give it up. Several months ago they gave him a clean bill of health, but they will not give up. Rob doesn’t do drugs ― he doesn’t even drink. This isn’t a drug story; it’s a dirty cop story.” 

Peterson spoke similarly to Yonhap News over the phone. 

He was quoted as saying that police didn’t have any evidence and forced Holley, 58, to make a confession. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Holley supposedly tested positive for drugs after doing a urinalysis and they have evidence of him depositing money to a drug dealers account. This seems like pretty damning evidence to me.