Foreign National Arrested and Sentenced for Manufacturing and Distributing 'Rush', a Club Drug

Smuggling Raw Materials from Vietnam, Then Manufacturing and Selling Domestically

A man in his 20s, a foreign national, was arrested by the police for secretly importing the raw materials of "Rush," known as a "club drug" overseas, into South Korea and manufacturing and selling it.

The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced on the 5th that they arrested a 24-year-old male, Mr. A, a national of the Dominican Republic, on the 27th of last month on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act and subsequently sent him to detention.
[Photo by Gangnam Police Station, Seoul]

The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced on the 5th that they had arrested Mr. A (24), a Dominican Republic national, and sent him to prosecution on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.

According to the police, Mr. A is suspected of smuggling the raw materials of Rush from Vietnam since September last year to manufacture and distribute the drug.

It was investigated that Mr. A disguised the raw materials in glass bottles as cosmetics and smuggled them through Incheon International Airport, then manufactured Rush at a workshop located in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Rush, which contains alkyl nitrites used as vasodilators, is a new type of drug used in clubs. Due to concerns about side effects such as oxygen deficiency and nerve damage, it was designated as a temporary Schedule 2 narcotic in South Korea in May 2020.

Police investigations revealed that Mr. A, who mainly traveled between Vietnam and South Korea as a luxury reseller, started manufacturing and selling Rush at high prices to make money after luxury sales declined due to the economic downturn.

The amount of Rush manufactured by Mr. A reached 4 liters, and the police seized 114 bottles (3.42 liters) of Rush that had not been distributed in the market. Additionally, the police recently arrested distributors Mr. B (33) and Mr. C (35), who sold the Rush manufactured by Mr. A domestically.

The police plan to continue tracking down the middle distributors who have not yet been caught and will make every effort to recover the criminal proceeds.

A police official explained, "It is a very rare case in South Korea that raw materials of Rush were smuggled in from overseas and manufactured and distributed in large quantities domestically."

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