Drug Traffickers Increasingly Using Teenagers to Smuggle Drugs into South Korea
How long will it be before they start using children to smuggle drugs into South Korea?:
A, 18 years old, was caught attempting to smuggle 3 kg of methamphetamine and 2.9 kg of ketamine worth 400 million Korean won in wholesale value from Thailand to South Korea on three separate occasions between September and October 2024 and was referred to trial in November of the same year.
A drug supplier, who exploited the fact that teenagers are less likely to be suspected during immigration processes, proposed through Telegram, “I will pay 1 million Korean won per 100 grams of transported drugs,” which A accepted as a “high-income part-time job.” While A was sentenced to 6 years and 6 months in prison last year, the supplier has yet to be apprehended.
As seen in this case, even when lower-level drug distributors are arrested, their higher-level supervisors often evade law enforcement. This is because as the government strengthens drug crackdowns, drug traffickers are also seeking gaps in the investigative net.
I recommend reading the rest at the link, but it gives an interesting look at how drug dealers are distributing drugs within South Korea by taking payments over Telegram and sending grid coordinates to locations in the countryside where the drugs are hidden.
The drug problem is getting very serious here. And politicians are doing nothing about it.
Whatever they do, they should not copy the American War on Drugs…
…at least for marijuana.
The government destroyed more lives than the drug ever did over petty and harmless use.
But Korea does not need any of this.
If you get caught using for a first offense, spend the next month of weekends doing manual labor in service of the country. If you get caught dealing, 10 years doing manual labor every day in service of the country on a chain gang.
That will punish the users without ruining thir lives. It will remove the dealers.
@ChickenHead:
Agreed. But, another massive problem is China. Chinese people smuggle drugs into the country. Major issue in Jeju where a lot of Chinese tourists go and illegally stay.
Chinese drug smugglers can pull weeds around Jeju Island for 10 years just like everyone else.
In fact, put their chain gangs cleaning up tourist areas so they can explain the error of their ways in their native language.
@ChickenHead:
Looks like you don’t know much about the situ. These Chinese smugglers are being let go. They’re not getting punished. They get caught, but nothing happens.