Retail price 1.6 Billion Won... Thai National Smuggling Drugs by Parcel Receives Heavy Sentence in Second Trial

Received Drugs via International Mail at Workplace Factory
"Thought It Was a Package from My Sister" Appeal Dismissed
Court: "Severe Punishment Justified Considering Social Harm"

A man in his 20s from Thailand who smuggled drugs worth billions of won into the country via international mail was sentenced to a heavy prison term again in the second trial, following the first trial.

According to the legal community on the 21st, A (29), a Thai national, conspired with an accomplice in Thailand between March and April last year to smuggle 16,144 tablets of Yaba containing methamphetamine hidden inside a snack box.

Yaba is an amphetamine-based synthetic drug whose name means "crazy drug" in Thai. The Yaba that A brought into the country is valued at 290 million won on the market.

The drug package sent via international express mail arrived at a factory in Dangjin, Chungnam, where A worked, through Incheon Airport on May 10 of the same year. A received the mail at around 7:50 p.m. At the time, after other employees had taken the mail from the delivery storage, he waited 10 minutes after finishing night work and then picked up the last remaining package.

However, the mail was a trap set by the investigation agency. Instead of immediately collecting the cargo containing drugs, the so-called "controlled delivery" was conducted to allow the package to be delivered to the destination and then arrest the recipient and accomplice on site. Two months earlier, the investigation agency had also conducted a controlled delivery, placing a package containing drugs in front of an office equipped with CCTV. While other employees checked the package, A was the only one who showed no interest, which became a crucial clue.

The photo is not directly related to the article. [Image source=Pixabay]

Investigation of A's mobile phone revealed records of exchanging white powder suspected to be drugs and bank account numbers. Also, on the day A was urgently arrested, there was a record of checking the delivery status of the package from an IP address in Laos.

Charged with violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (psychotropic substances) and other charges, A was sentenced to 10 years in prison in the first trial. He appealed, claiming, "I only received the package because I mistakenly thought my sister in Thailand sent it or another colleague forgot to pick it up." However, the second trial court dismissed the appeal, stating, "The photo of the mail sent by the sister and the package in this case are clearly different in appearance, and there are only three Thai colleagues at the factory, so it is unlikely that the recipient was mistaken."

The 3rd Criminal Division of the Daejeon High Court (Presiding Judge Kim Byung-sik) on the 16th said, "The Yaba imported by the defendant is a large quantity worth 300 million won at wholesale price and as much as 1.6 billion won at retail price," adding, "Considering that it is difficult to identify accomplices or the circumstances of the crime in drug import crimes and the social harm caused if distributed, the original court's judgment that strict punishment is necessary is reasonable," and sentenced him to 10 years in prison, the same as the first trial. A appealed to the Supreme Court despite the second trial ruling.

Meanwhile, the Korea Customs Service announced in February, "We detected 771 drug smuggling cases last year." The amount of drugs seized was 362 kg in 2018, 412 kg in 2019, and decreased to 148 kg in 2020, the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, but sharply increased to 1,272 kg in 2021. This is due to the increase in non-face-to-face drug smuggling using express cargo and international mail while international travel became difficult. Among the drugs seized last year, 94% were brought into the country through international mail or express cargo, and 5% through air travelers.

The Korea Customs Service predicted, "There is a trend of increasing large-scale smuggling for domestic distribution and sales involving international drug smuggling organizations," and added, "Because the market price in our country is higher than in other countries, attempts to smuggle will continue."

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