Gang of Foreign Workers Selling Smuggled Philopon Crackdown by Police

160 Billion Won Worth of Methamphetamine Smuggled via International Courier
23 Arrested Including Domestic Sales Boss, 20 Detained

[Asia Economy Reporter Yoo Byung-don] A group involved in smuggling methamphetamine via international courier and selling it to foreign workers has been caught by the police.

The Dongjak Police Station in Seoul announced on the 3rd that they arrested 23 people, including the domestic sales manager Mr. A, on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act, and detained 20 of them.

According to the police, Mr. A is suspected of smuggling methamphetamine and other narcotics through international courier services and selling them to foreign workers residing in Gyeonggi Province, Jeonbuk, and Chungnam.

Police investigations revealed that from April to October this year, Mr. A smuggled a total of 2.5 kg of methamphetamine (worth approximately 16 billion KRW) in four separate shipments. This amount is enough for about 83,000 people to use at once.

Mr. A supplied the smuggled drugs to 16 local distributors scattered across various regions, who then sold them to foreign workers using social networking services (SNS).

The police detained all 16 local distributors along with Mr. A, and additionally arrested six drug buyers and users, detaining three of them. During the arrest, they seized a large quantity of narcotics, including 1.3 kg of methamphetamine and 685 tablets of yaba, and confiscated illegal profits worth approximately 97.2 million KRW.

Furthermore, the police are continuing to track Mr. B, the local sales manager in Thailand who shipped the drugs to Korea, through cooperation with Interpol, the Coast Guard, the Customs Service, and Thai investigative agencies.

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