Prosecutors Declare Full-Scale War on Drug Crimes

Formation of 'Special Investigation Teams' at Four Major Prosecutor's Offices Nationwide
Joint Investigation Conducted with Personnel from Korea Customs Service and National Intelligence Service

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Kyung-jun] The prosecution has declared a "war on drug crimes" and decided to form special investigation teams at the four major prosecution offices nationwide. These special teams will conduct joint investigations on a wide regional scale, focusing on large-scale drug smuggling, illegal distribution of medical narcotics, and internet drug distribution through the dark web.

On the 14th, the Supreme Prosecutors' Office established a policy to fully respond to "drug and livelihood-related crimes" and decided to operate special teams at the Seoul Central, Incheon, Busan, and Gwangju District Prosecutors' Offices in cooperation with related agencies such as the Korea Customs Service, National Intelligence Service, Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Ministry of Health and Welfare, local governments, and the Korea Communications Commission.

The Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office will conduct joint investigations covering the metropolitan area, Gangwon, and Chungcheong regions; the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office will cover Incheon Airport, ports, and the metropolitan and Chungcheong regions; the Busan District Prosecutors' Office will cover Busan Airport, ports, and the Yeongnam region; and the Gwangju District Prosecutors' Office will cover Mokpo and Gunsan ports and the Honam region, thus covering all regions nationwide.

The special teams will include prosecutors specializing in drug cases, drug investigators, airport and port drug smuggling experts from local customs offices, health and medical experts from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and local governments, and personnel from the Korea Communications Commission responsible for blocking and deleting drug sales advertisement sites. Each investigation team will consist of 10 to 15 drug-specialized prosecutors and investigators, 3 to 4 dedicated customs personnel, 3 to 4 experts from the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and local governments, and one member from the Korea Communications Commission assigned to three of the four teams, totaling approximately 70 to 80 personnel.

During the wide-area joint investigations, the prosecution plans to hand over crime information related to regional distribution, drug use, and possession offenders to the police. Drug-specialized prosecutors will handle all warrants and transfer cases, ensuring thorough investigations covering smuggling, distribution, and drug use across both wide and individual regions.

The prosecution intends to integrate and analyze major drug inflow country databases, customs drug clearance information, and overseas drug intelligence from the National Intelligence Service. They will also conduct rapid investigations through real-time cooperation with overseas drug investigation agencies such as the DEA to proactively block the domestic inflow of narcotics.

Additionally, the prosecution plans to strictly respond to livelihood-related crimes such as voice phishing, jeonse fraud, stalking crimes, and digital sex crimes. Since the first report in 2006, voice phishing has become increasingly severe, with damages reaching 774.4 billion KRW last year, and the methods have become more sophisticated, organized, and internationalized.

In response, the prosecution launched the "Government Joint Investigation Team for Voice Phishing Crimes" in July this year with related agencies. After about two months of joint investigations, they uncovered voice phishing crimes involving foreign masterminds, drug offenders, and organized crime groups, resulting in 27 people being booked and 7 detained. From January to last month, district prosecutors' offices have booked a total of 141 people and detained 38 in voice phishing cases.

Regarding jeonse fraud crimes, the prosecution will prioritize the actual scale of damage and recovery status as key factors in detention investigations and sentencing. For cases producing multiple victims and where damages have not been recovered, they will actively appeal to ensure punishments commensurate with the crime, including seeking the maximum statutory sentence of 15 years imprisonment for fraud crimes under concurrent offense aggravation.

In response to stalking crimes, which have heightened public anxiety following incidents such as the "Sindang Station stalking revenge murder," the prosecution will strengthen the dedicated investigation system for stalking-related warrants and provisional measures. They will also operate a "hotline" between stalking-specialized prosecutors nationwide and dedicated police units to enable joint and rapid responses by prosecution and police from the early stages of stalking incidents.

Furthermore, to address digital sex crimes such as the "Second n-room" case, power-related crimes, and sex crimes against children and adolescents, the prosecution plans to expand the "Women and Children Crime Investigation Division" to 11 district prosecutors' offices nationwide. They will also strengthen specialized investigative capabilities by expanding dedicated departments in regional hubs and major prosecution offices, thereby establishing a nationwide professional response system.

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