Rapid Increase in Youth Drug Offenders... Police Operate Dedicated Online Drug Investigation Team

The National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters announced on the 31st that it will operate dedicated online drug investigation teams at each provincial police agency.

According to the police, there were a total of 13,512 online drug offenders last year, with those in their teens to thirties accounting for 63.4%.

While the existing drug investigation method was a broad net approach, the dedicated teams plan to operate a targeted investigation system focusing on distribution channels that serve as links between stages of drug distribution, such as ▲illegal virtual asset exchanges ▲advertising agencies for sales ▲dedicated couriers.

In addition to establishing specialized training courses on cyber tracking techniques for various online sales channels and related laws and systems, resources such as virtual asset tracking programs and expert analysts will be utilized to simultaneously pursue tracking of virtual asset distribution routes and recovery of criminal proceeds.

The police will actively consider applying charges of aiding and abetting drug sales against illegal (unregistered) virtual asset exchanges and professional advertising agencies that are exploited as transaction channels for online drugs.

When overseas information technology (IT) companies or secure messengers are used in online drug crimes, investigation clues will be secured by utilizing international cooperation infrastructure.

A National Police Agency official stated, “Drug crimes are distribution-based crimes, and by severing the links between online distribution channels, we will dismantle the online drug market.”

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