Police Arrest Meth Traffickers, Users

Drug traffickers who smuggled methamphetamine from China and circulated it nationwide, and their high profile clients who routinely purchased and used the controlled substance, were caught in numbers.

On May 9, Narcotics Taskforce of Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency arrested Lee (39) and eight others on charges of smuggling three kilos of meth worth about 10 billion won from China and selling it, which violates laws pertaining to controlled substances. The authority also arrested Kim (37) and remanded him on bail while pursuing another Kim (34) and two middlemen who are suspected of selling the drug.

The police also arrested Yuk (37) and four others for purchasing and using the dope. Kim (43) and 10 others arrested were remanded on bail. An arrest warrant was issued for Park (41), who is being pursued on the same charge.

Lee and his group have been trafficking a sizable quantity of methamphetamine, often employing many elaborate schemes, such as coating a magazine cover with it, or disguising it as Chinese herbal medicine. Sometimes they would smuggle the drug directly through border-crossing merchants. Lee and his likes are believed to have been circulating the drug nationwide via rapid bus freight services and home-delivery runners.

Some of the drug users caught in the net of recent investigation were offsprings of high-profile figures such as a former government minister, a former director of the prosecutor’s office, and a former vice-chairman of a conglomerate.

The police said some of the drug dealers, after being informed that there are drug-addicts among the visitors of prison inmates who are serving time for drug-related charges, approached the addicts disguising themselves as narcotics enforcement agents and offered some testers. Once the addicts take the free testers, the dealers would then threaten them with arrest, forcing them into selling drugs to fellow addicts.

peacechaos@donga.com