Tag: drugs

This is something that the ROK government needs to stop or they are going to end up with a large drug addicted homeless population like we have in the US:

“Do you want to try it? It feels really good, and it helps you lose weight too. One time can’t hurt.”  
   
Those were the words heard by a 17-year-old student as she was handed a syringe by a man in his thirties, whom she met through a slightly older friend.  

He was lying. The first time led to another, and another — and an addiction.

Arrested by the police last year, the 17-year-old student admitted she made a mistake taking that first injection. But the older man wasn’t honest at all with her. “If I knew it was methamphetamine inside that syringe, I would have never done it in the first place.”  

Korea is developing a teen drug problem, its size difficult to estimate. One indication: over 100 million individual purchases every year of drugs from overseas, according to the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office.

Importing, manufacturing, trading, buying, selling, transporting, possessing, and using drugs are all considered drug crimes in Korea.   (……)

“Based on the UN’s standards, if the number of drug offenders exceeds 20 in a population of 100,000, it means that drugs aren’t under control and it is not a drug-free nation,” said Cheon young-hoon, a psychiatric specialist and director of Incheon Chamsarang Hospital.    
   
“Considering Korea’s population of 50 million, the number of drug offenders per 100,000 is actually more than 30.”

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

This is a lot of meth that was interdicted in Busan:

South Korean prosecutors said Wednesday they have busted the nation’s largest-ever drug trafficking attempt with an arrest of a man in his 30s in the southern port city of Busan.

The Busan District Prosecutors Office said it has arrested and indicted a 34-year-old man on charges of smuggling over 400 kilograms of methamphetamine from Mexico.

The prosecution said the volume of methamphetamine seized from the suspect totaled 404.23 kg, the largest amount in the nation’s history of drug smuggling.

The seized drugs, which can be administered to 13.5 million people at the same time, is worth 1.3 trillion won ($1.12 billion) in terms of retail price.

Korea Times

You can read more at the link.

Things just went from bad to worse for television personality Robert Holley:

Police said Wednesday they began investigating naturalized television personality Robert Holley last year after an alleged drug user claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and the two had used methamphetamine together.

After being placed under immediate arrest on Monday at a parking lot in western Seoul for illegally purchasing methamphetamine online and using it, Holley – also known by his Korean name Ha Il – attended a warrant hearing for his arrest in Suwon, Gyeonggi, on Wednesday. 

“To my family, friends and the public who have protected me for all this time, I want to say I apologize,” Holley told reporters as he entered the courthouse.

The court rejected the detention warrant Wednesday evening, setting Holley free. It said it was hard to believe Holley would destroy evidece.

According to the Anyang Dongan Police Precinct, which investigated Holley’s case, this was the third time the law enforcement authorities have probed him for drug use, after inconclusive attempts in July 2017 and March 2018. 

In last year’s attempt, according to Anyang police, a 34 year-old man arrested for drug use, identified only by his surname Cho, claimed he was Holley’s gay lover and that they had taken meth together before engaging in sexual intercourse. Police said they confirmed that Cho had visited Holley’s home multiple times through CCTV footage, and had other evidence for Cho’s claims. 

Joong Ang Ilbo

You can read more at the link.

Here is a strange story of a Mormon missionary turned international lawyer and Korean citizen arrested for using drugs in South Korea:

Mark Peterson, professor emeritus at Brigham Young University in Utah, claimed Tuesday that popular TV personality Robert Holley, known by the Korean name Ha Il, who was arrested for allegedly using methamphetamine, was the victim of “dirty” Korean cops. 

In a posting on historian Robert Neff’s Facebook, Peterson, a Korea Times columnist, wrote: “Rob’s a friend of mine. The police have been dogging him for about a year because another entertainer who is guilty has accused Rob as a way of lightening his own sentence. 

“Rob refutes every accusation, and the police will not give it up. Several months ago they gave him a clean bill of health, but they will not give up. Rob doesn’t do drugs ― he doesn’t even drink. This isn’t a drug story; it’s a dirty cop story.” 

Peterson spoke similarly to Yonhap News over the phone. 

He was quoted as saying that police didn’t have any evidence and forced Holley, 58, to make a confession. 

Korea Times

You can read more at the link, but Holley supposedly tested positive for drugs after doing a urinalysis and they have evidence of him depositing money to a drug dealers account. This seems like pretty damning evidence to me.

Below is a posting over at Reddit where one foreign woman describes how she felt she was drugged by employees at a club in Seoul:

So I recently went clubbing in Hongdae (which is common among foreigners) and I went to a few different clubs. The last one I went to was called Club Aura (PLEASE REMEMBER THIS CLUB AND AVOID IT!)
They have multiple bad reviews pretty much everywhere about how they charge different prices based on how you look (race, wealth, etc) and how the security there is absolute shit and very violent.
Anyway, my experience there was bad not from either of those things but because I got drugged. Im not sure what the hell I was drugged with but it made me forget everything and I was sick for a good 12 hours after, I was also super paranoid and ended up going home asap. The thing is, I wasn’t drugged by club-goers; I was drugged by girls who are hired to work there, who were giving out ‘special’ drinks only to girls.
This has been a problem in every big city across the world, but I’ve lived in Korea for 6 months now and Ive always felt safe here, so I guess that was enough to let my guard down.
PLEASE BE SAFE. PLEASE DONT GO OUT ALONE. AND PLEASE BE CAUTIOUS, EVEN IF YOU FEEL SAFE.

Reddit

At the link you can read all the various comments from other readers who were complaining about the same thing happening in Seoul at other clubs where the drug foreign women and then try to hook them up with Korean guys.

Has anyone else experienced or heard of such activities going in Korean bars?

This is a lot of people to get rolled up all at once for drug crimes:

Two sailors are already heading to court-martial for using, possessing and distributing the hallucinogenic drug, while three are waiting to see whether they will be charged as well, according to 7th Fleet spokesman Lt. Joe Keiley.

Another 10 sailors with the Japan-based ship were administratively disciplined on LSD-related charges, Keiley said.

A 15th sailor was also disciplined, but that person was not assigned to the carrier’s reactor department.

Probably the most surprising thing I learned from this article is that only 2% of freight is inspected coming into South Korea:

South Korean police said Monday they have busted the largest-ever operation to smuggle drugs into the country, a scheme they say involves Taiwanese and Japanese organized crime rings and Korean dealers.

Six people were arrested in the attempted trafficking of 112 kilograms of methamphetamine, an amount that is enough to be used simultaneously by 3.7 million people, according to police. It is estimated to be worth 370 billion won (US$326.56 million).

Among those arrested were a 25-year-old Taiwanese, a 32-year-old Japanese and a 63-year-old South Korean.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said the Taiwanese obtained a screw making machine on a ship at a port in the southeastern coastal city of Busan, which departed from Bangkok on July 6 this year. Concealed inside the machine were 112 bags packed with 1 kilogram of methamphetamine each.

The customs authorities failed to detect the smuggled drug as it was concealed inside the machine and sealed up by welding. Usually, it is almost impossible for the customs authorities to detect drug smuggling attempts at a port, the Korea Customs Service said.

The customs office conducts drug inspections on only 2 percent of freight sent into South Korea and lacks the time to do more. Sniffing dogs are of no use as methamphetamine has no color or smell, according to the office.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but if only 2% of freight is inspected it seems smuggling drugs into South Korea is incredibly easy.  Additionally it seems it would be easy for someone to smuggle in imports from North Korea in violation of sanctions which has already happened this year.

Kim Jae-il (R), a senior official of the Korea Customs Service (KCS) in charge of narcotic control, poses with Jesse Fong, Far East regional director of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), at his office in Seoul on June 20, 2018, after signing an MOU on enhancing cooperation on drug busts. This photo was provided courtesy of the KCS. (Yonhap)