Daegu District Court Sentences Group for Distributing 80,000 Discarded Masks to Prison Terms

[Asia Economy Yeongnam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Dongwook Park] The Daegu District Court Criminal Division 2 (Presiding Judge Lee Ji-min) announced on the 22nd that A (60), who was indicted and detained on charges of distributing masks intended for disposal in the market (violation of the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act), was sentenced to 2 years and 6 months in prison, and B (51) was sentenced to 2 years and 1 month in prison.

C, who participated in the crime, was sentenced to 1 year in prison, and another accomplice, D, was sentenced to 1 year in prison with a 2-year probation and ordered to perform 120 hours of community service.

They were prosecuted on charges of purchasing 250,000 health masks, which were to be discarded due to poor quality, at 350 won each through scrap dealers and others in February, then selecting about 80,000 masks that were difficult to distinguish from normal products by the naked eye and distributing them in the market at prices ranging from 700 to 1,200 won. They were also charged with manufacturing tens of thousands of health masks with reduced performance by attaching ear bands using ultrasonic welding machines and packaging masks that required external repairs.

In the judgment, the court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "They committed the crime to gain economic benefits by taking advantage of the mask shortage, and the crime is of poor quality as they distributed or manufactured discarded masks without hygienic facilities and disinfection or cleaning procedures."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.