Customs Service Seizes 10.4kg of Narcotics Through Korea-US Cooperation... "Strengthening Domestic and International Joint Investigations"

Data on the Increase and Decrease of Drug Smuggling by Item from 2019 to August 2022. Provided by Korea Customs Service

[Asia Economy (Daejeon) Reporter Jeong Il-woong] The Korea Customs Service, in cooperation with the United States, seized 10.4 kg of narcotics and referred drug offenders to the prosecution.

On the 13th, Incheon Customs of the Korea Customs Service announced that from March to August, in collaboration with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), they detected narcotics such as cannabis and ketamine smuggled via express cargo and international mail, and referred six suspects to the prosecution.

The crackdown was conducted by obtaining related information through the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and tracking both the suppliers and recipients of narcotics simultaneously with HSI.

Earlier in August, the Korea Customs Service arrested one suspect attempting to bring 7.3 kg of ketamine (worth approximately 530 million KRW, enough for simultaneous use by about 16,000 people) from the U.S. to Korea through international controlled delivery with HSI and referred the suspect to the prosecution.

Controlled delivery is a special investigative technique in which narcotics concealed in cargo are disguised as normal delivery procedures under the surveillance of investigative agencies to simultaneously arrest the recipient and accomplices on site, aiming to identify drug crime-related persons.

The Korea Customs Service notes that, unlike in the past when Korea was used as a transit or transshipment point for narcotics smuggling, recently most smuggled narcotics are consumed domestically as a final consumption market.

In the same context, they also analyzed that attempts to smuggle narcotics into Korea will steadily increase in the future.

This is due to the decline in international prices of narcotics and the oversupply in the Southeast Asian region.

For example, methamphetamine is traded at 30,000 KRW per gram in Thailand, 35,000 KRW in the U.S., but prices soar up to 250,000 KRW in Korea.

Reflecting this, methamphetamine mainly consumed domestically is being smuggled in larger quantities from gram units to kilogram units, and the volume of narcotics smuggled from Southeast Asia is rapidly increasing.

Specifically, the number of methamphetamine smuggling cases over 1 kg increased from 22 cases in 2019 to 18 in 2020, 29 in 2021, and 36 cases as of August this year.

Also, during the same period, the volume of narcotics smuggled from Southeast Asia increased from 108 kg in 2019 to 56 kg in 2020, 170 kg in 2021, and 125 kg as of August this year.

In this regard, the Korea Customs Service considers it most important to block attempts to smuggle narcotics at border points such as airports and ports, and plans to focus all efforts on expanding joint investigations with related agencies in major narcotics supply countries such as the U.S. and Thailand.

In fact, next year, they plan to conduct a second joint crackdown with Thailand, a narcotics distribution hub in the Asia-Pacific region, and to block narcotics smuggling from Europe, they plan to promote joint crackdowns with European narcotics manufacturing and distribution hub countries.

A Korea Customs Service official said, “The Korea Customs Service plans to expand its dedicated investigative organization and personnel and strengthen detection capabilities using advanced equipment,” adding, “We will also focus on completely blocking narcotics smuggling into Korea through cooperation with the prosecution, police, and National Intelligence Service.”

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