KAIST "Graduate Student in 'Drug Club' Already Expelled at Time of Incident"

Drug Club of 300 Prestigious University Students
Including Many Medical and Law School Applicants

The president of a large-scale university student union club in the Seoul metropolitan area, in his 30s, who was indicted on charges of distributing and using drugs, was found not to have been a student at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) at the time of the crime.

On the 6th, KAIST stated in a press release, "The graduate student (Mr. A), known as the president of the union club, was expelled in 2020, before forming the club in 2021, and was not a registered student at the time of the incident." Mr. A, who graduated from Yonsei University as an undergraduate, was initially reported to be affiliated with KAIST graduate school.

KAIST added, "The university union club in question is not a registered on-campus club at KAIST," and "Taking this incident as an opportunity, we will promptly conduct drug prevention education and continuously seek multifaceted measures to ensure students' safety from drugs."

KAIST signboard. [Image courtesy of KAIST]

Earlier, prestigious university students who organized a union club of hundreds of members mainly from universities in the metropolitan area to distribute and use drugs were caught by the prosecution.

On the 5th, the Criminal Division 4 of the Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office (Chief Prosecutor Nam Su-yeon) announced that they had arrested and indicted Mr. A, the president of the university student union club, and four other members in their 20s on charges including violation of the Narcotics Control Act (psychotropic substances), and indicted two others without detention. Eight students who only used drugs were given conditional suspension of indictment.

According to the prosecution, from December 2022 for one year, they met in the club formed by Mr. A, purchased drugs, and used them up to more than ten times. Mr. A is also charged with repeatedly assaulting his girlfriend met through the club, threatening to distribute videos of their sexual relations, and falsely accusing a cryptocurrency launderer who was about to report his drug purchase and use.

Prosecutors found that Mr. A formed a social club in 2021 for friendship purposes and promoted on social networking services (SNS) used by university students that "joining the club allows free or discounted access to luxury foreign cars, hotels, music festivals, etc." Using profits from drug sales, he held lavish parties at luxury hotels and attracted university students, rapidly expanding the club to 300 members in a short period.

Among the members were students from prestigious universities such as Seoul National University and Korea University, as well as many preparing to re-enter medical and pharmacy schools, and applicants for the Legal Education Eligibility Test (LEET) for admission to law schools.

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