Sent 'Crazy Drugs' to Unknown Address... Thai Smuggler Arrested

Gwangju Customs Seizes Large Quantities of YABA and Methamphetamine
"Be Cautious of Unordered Parcels"

Gwangju Main Customs Office of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 3rd that it had arrested a 24-year-old Thai national, Ms. A, who was illegally residing in Korea, on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act by smuggling in a quantity of drugs sufficient for tens of thousands of people to use simultaneously.

From the left, yaba contents (18,000 tablets) and the opened express cargo box used to conceal and smuggle them. A method of hiding drugs in snack and supplement packaging was used. Provided by Gwangju Main Customs Office

The drugs smuggled in by Ms. A included 15,000 tablets of YABA, known in Thailand as the "crazy drug," as well as 620g of methamphetamine and 37g of ketamine, enough for a total of 36,000 people to use at once. YABA is a drug made by mixing methamphetamine with the narcotic analgesic codeine and caffeine, and is known for its strong addictive and hallucinogenic effects.

At the end of last year, Gwangju Customs obtained information that YABA was being sent from Thailand to Korea and began a detailed analysis. At the end of December last year, they detected YABA and methamphetamine in an express cargo shipment arriving at Incheon Airport, and subsequently arrested Ms. A on the spot in January when she came to collect the cargo.

According to the investigation, Ms. A conspired with an acquaintance, Mr. B, in Thailand to hide the drugs in snack bags and supplement packaging before smuggling them in. In order to evade detection, she used the addresses and phone numbers of strangers as the delivery destination and, on the day of delivery, circled the area for about two hours and even had a taxi waiting, showing evidence of meticulous planning. A forensic examination of her mobile phone by customs authorities also revealed that Ms. A had repeatedly smuggled and used various types of drugs, including ketamine.

Jung Taeseong, Head of Investigation at Gwangju Main Customs Office, stated, "Recently, there has been an increase in attempts to evade investigation by sending drugs to other people's addresses," and urged, "If you receive a parcel from overseas that you did not order, do not open it under any circumstances and report it to the Korea Customs Service or through our website."

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