‘Disguised as Honey’ Korean-Canadian Arrested for Smuggling High-Concentration Cannabis Oil

A group smuggling highly concentrated cannabis oil disguised as honey products was caught by customs.

On the 20th, the Incheon Airport Customs under the Korea Customs Service announced that it had arrested Mr. A and Mr. B, a Korean-Canadian, on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act and sent them to the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office in custody.

The highly concentrated cannabis oil seized by Incheon Customs is contained in a glass bottle. Provided by the Korea Customs Service

According to Incheon Customs, Mr. A and Mr. B met in Canada and maintained contact via Telegram. They are suspected of smuggling highly concentrated cannabis oil and smoking tools twice, in October last year and January this year, using international mail and express cargo.

They disguised the cannabis oil as honey products and the smoking tools as electronic components to evade customs surveillance. It was revealed that Mr. A and others imported 1.8 kg of highly concentrated cannabis oil (40 times concentrated THC component of marijuana) and planned to manufacture and sell liquid cannabis cartridges domestically.

Incheon Customs believes the reason for smuggling highly concentrated cannabis oil is the large price difference between domestic and international markets. In fact, in Canada, highly concentrated cannabis oil can be purchased for 4,000 KRW per gram, but in Korea, liquid cannabis cartridges are traded at 200,000 KRW each, allowing for a profit margin of about 50 times the purchase cost.

2022~2024 (February) Cannabis Control Status Data. Provided by Korea Customs Service

In January this year, during an inspection of international mail, Incheon Customs seized two bottles (1.5 kg) of cannabis oil and arrested recipient Mr. A through controlled delivery. Subsequently, they tracked and successfully arrested Mr. B, who was staying in Korea and attempting to flee abroad. At the time of Mr. B’s arrest, Incheon Customs additionally confirmed that Mr. A and Mr. B had smuggled cannabis oil in October last year and seized 0.3 kg of cannabis oil brought in at that time.

Analysis of the seized cannabis oil confirmed that the smuggled cannabis oil had a THC concentration of 77%, which is the main psychoactive component causing hallucinations. Considering that non-concentrated cannabis oil typically has a THC concentration of 2-3%, this is nearly 40 times higher in concentration.

A Korea Customs Service official stated, “Highly concentrated cannabis oil has significantly higher dependency and addictiveness compared to other cannabis products, and if distributed domestically, it could pose a serious risk to public safety. The Customs Service plans to focus its enforcement capabilities to block the smuggling of highly concentrated narcotics that guarantee high profits to drug offenders.”

Meanwhile, from last year to February this year, the Korea Customs Service has detected a total of 140 cases involving 52 kg of smuggled cannabis oil. This amount is enough to produce about 52,000 cartridges, and considering that each cartridge can be smoked up to 40 times, it corresponds to a total of 2 million smoking instances.

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