Category: crime & punishment

Obviously these two knuckleheads are not readers of the ROK Drop because if they were they would know that smuggling drugs through the US military mail is now an easy way to get yourself arrested:

Two 2nd Infantry Division soldiers have been indicted in connection with a $10 million methamphetamine smuggling case involving the U.S. military postal service, officials said Wednesday.

The shipment of nearly eight pounds of meth — in three packages with labels saying they contained candy — was discovered in late October by the customs service at the Incheon airport near Seoul.

Authorities then monitored the shipment and detained the soldiers, both 19, for questioning days later when they moved to collect it.

The men were indicted Tuesday on charges of violating the narcotics control act.  [Stars & Stripes]

You can read more at the link, but these two were getting paid $3,000 and $1,000 for agreeing to have the drugs mailed to them on behalf of a Korean-American in Uijongbu who denying all the charges.

Here we go again with another crazy guy committing a mass shooting:

The man police say opened fire with a gun from his checked baggage at a Florida airport had a history of mental health issues — some of which followed his military service in Iraq — and was receiving psychological treatment at his home in Alaska, his relatives said Friday after the deadly shooting.

“Only thing I could tell you was when he came out of Iraq, he wasn’t feeling too good,” his uncle, Hernan Rivera, told The Record newspaper.

Esteban Santiago, 26, deployed in 2010 as part of the Puerto Rico National Guard, spending a year with an engineering battalion, according to Guard spokesman Maj. Paul Dahlen.  [Associated Press]

You can read more at the link, but we have heard this claim before of service in Iraq or Afghanistan being the reason someone committed a crime to find out later they were a Fobbit that never saw active combat.  I won’t believe his service in Iraq had anything to do with him committing this crime until I hear what his service record was in Iraq.  There is actually a pretty good chance he did not see active combat considering the timeframe he was in Iraq in 2010-2011 was when the pullout happened.

Additionally according to what the media has reported so far all he received from his Iraq deployment was a Iraq Campaign Medal and a Global War on Terrorism Service Medal which everyone gets.  If he was participating in active combat you would think he would have received at least an AAM or ARCOM plus a Combat Action Badge.  Based on the information currently available I would not be surprised if Santiago’s mental issues are unrelated to his military service.

Here is a real dirtbag that hopefully will be spending the rest of his life in prison:

A man who killed his pregnant girlfriend also attempted to murder his ex-lover, a court said Monday.

Daejeon High Court, sitting as an appeal court, sentenced the man, 37, whose name has been withheld, to 35 years’ jail, increasing the initial 30-year sentence because of his “inhumane sin.”

The court said the man went to Jeju Island with his girlfriend last November to search for a place to open a restaurant. The couple spent a night at a motel and next morning had an argument over financial issues. The man then tried to strangle the woman because she “disrespected him.” When he found she was not dead, he made another attempt using a hairdryer cord.

The man then put the woman’s body into their rental car and set the vehicle alight to make her death look like it was the result of an accident. [Korea Times]

You can read the rest at the link, but the guy was recently out of prison for trying to kill his ex-girlfriend.

You would think with the millions of dollars this guy has made as a major leaguer he could at least afford his own driver or at least a taxi:

Seoul police said Wednesday they’re seeking to indict Pittsburgh Pirates’ infielder Kang Jung-ho on charges of driving under the influence of alcohol.

Police have handed the case over to prosecutors after investigating Kang for leaving the scene of a DUI accident in the nation’s capital on Dec. 2.

It was Kang’s third DUI arrest, which resulted in revocation of his license.

Kang fled the scene after crashing into a guard rail on his way to his hotel in southern Seoul. In the immediate aftermath, a friend of Kang’s in the passenger seat, only identified by the surname Yoo, reported to police as the driver of the vehicle. Police analyzed the black box inside the vehicle and determined that Kang had actually been behind the wheel.

Police are also seeking indictment of Kang’s friend. They said they couldn’t clearly establish that the two had intentionally misled police or that Kang had specifically asked Yoo to offer false testimony at first.

Kang, who has two major leaguer seasons under his belt, also faced sexual assault allegations that emerged in Chicago in July.

He was named to the South Korean national team for the 2017 World Baseball Classic (WBC) scheduled for March, but will likely be dropped from the 28-man roster as early as Wednesday.  [Yonhap]

It looks like this guy may be too self destructive to remain a major league baseball player considering he only hit .255 last year with 21 home runs.

It seems this guy should face far more serious punishment than what Cho Hyun-ah faced in the Nut Rage Incident:

Police on Tuesday requested an arrest warrant for the man who drunkenly attacked passengers and crew members on a Korean Air flight from Hanoi to Seoul for violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act.

The man, a 34-year-old named Lim Bum-jun, was seated in prestige class (business class) on Dec. 20 when he struck another passenger in the face and attacked cabin crew who tried to restrain him. He was subdued only after the crew and others, including American pop singer Richard Marx, tied him to a seat.

“Police requested an arrest warrant for Lim for wreaking havoc on the plane and violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act,” said a police officer. “This is a graver charge than a mere disciplinary action for violence on a plane.”

The charge is the same that former Vice President of Korean Air Cho Hyun-ah received in 2014, over the infamous “nut rage” tantrum. She was sentenced to one year in prison in her first trial, but in her appeal was sentenced to 10 months with two years of probation. Suspects charged with violating the Aviation Safety and Security Act can be sentenced to up to five years in prison.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read the rest at the link, but Korean Air confirms this is the second time Lim made trouble on a flight and have thus banned him for life from flying on the airline.

It looks like the US military may have its first execution in more than half a century:

A Kansas federal judge has lifted a stay of execution for a former soldier sentenced to death for two killings and a series of rapes, inching the man closer to becoming the military’s first death sentence carried out in more than a half century.

U.S. District Judge J. Thomas Marten last week sided with the U.S. government in denying a bid by former Fort Bragg, N.C., soldier Ronald A. Gray to block the military from pressing ahead with the execution by lethal injection.

Since a military court sentenced him to die in 1988, Gray has been held at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., where the military carried out its last execution when it hanged Army Pvt. John Bennett in 1961 for raping and trying to kill an 11-year-old Austrian girl.  [The Virginian Pilot]

You can read more at the link.

It seems to me if the Foreign Ministry really wants to send a message about the behavior of the former diplomat they should send him packing back to Chile to face legal consequences there:

South Korea’s foreign ministry referred a diplomat to the prosecution on Wednesday over sexually abusing a teenage girl in Chile, officials said.

The councilor, previously posted at the South Korean Embassy in Chile, is accused of committing a sexual offense against a 14-year-old girl in September while teaching her Korean.

Tipped off by the girl, a Chilean television channel filmed and broadcast the diplomat sexually harassing another woman earlier in the month who was acting as a teenage girl trying to receive Korean language lessons.

Holding a disciplinary committee on Tuesday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs dismissed the diplomat surnamed Park from public office.

“Today, the ministry reported Park to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office and submitted evidence including an indictment bill filed by the victim’s family,” officials here said.  [Yonhap]

Richard Marx and Daisy Fuentes to the rescue?  Via a reader tip, that is what happened on a recent Korean Air flight:

Richard Marx heroically fought off and restrained an out-of-control passenger during a flight from Vietnam to South Korea … and his wife, Daisy Fuentes, captured the whole ordeal.

Daisy took a bunch of pics as Korean Air flight attendants and the ’80s hitmaker teamed up to take down the man. You can see Richard was throwing elbows and even holding the rope tied around the guy.

According to Daisy and Richard … the flight crew was “completely ill trained” for combat. One of the flight attendants had a taser, but had no clue how to use it … at least that’s how Daisy saw it.

She says they battled the attacker for 4 hours, and 2 passengers and a crew member were injured. Seoul police arrested the guy when they landed.  [TMZ]

You can read more at the link, but here is video of the altercation:

I would have to think this guy is either extremely drunk on drugs judging by his behavior which is absolutely ridiculous. I have to give credit to the passenger who was helping to restrain him and kept getting spit in the face. I think many people would have hit the guy in the face after getting spat on repeatedly like that passenger was.

I can understand this guy getting demoted for blatantly violating the UCMJ for many years, but it seems this guy has been punished worse than other senior leaders that have defrauded the government, had highly inappropriate relationships or inappropriately shared classified intelligence.  The ironic thing about this is that if he was having a gay affair it would not have been considered adultery:

The Army has stripped Maj. Gen. David Haight of three ranks, Army Secretary Eric Fanning said Friday, following revelations contained in documents and interviews of Haight’s decade-long extramarital affair and “swinger lifestyle.

A board of his peers called for Haight to be busted to lieutenant colonel, a demotion that will cost him nearly $43,000 per year in pension pay. Fanning, in an interview, said he had accepted the recommendation after a panel of three officers reviewed Haight’s conduct — and his secret second life — and determined that lieutenant colonel was the last rank in which he had served satisfactorily.

Fanning spent hours discussing the case with other general officers and read the investigative report twice before accepting the recommendation, he said.

“He’s going to be retired as a lieutenant colonel,” Fanning said. “Pretty big drop.”  [USA Today]

You can read more at the link.

I think anyone equating Park Geun-hye to Kim Jong-un is a complete idiot.  They are as stupid as the people equating Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler.  With that said this is another example of how Korea’s defamation laws do put limits on freedom of speech:

A South Korean appeals court on Friday confirmed a monetary penalty for a 48-year-old pop artist and his 38-year-old collaborator who distributed leaflets critical of President Park Geun-hye across the country.

Upholding the previous ruling, the Seoul Central District Court said the act of spreading the leaflets should be distinct from freedom of expression or freedom of art.

The court ordered the artist, Lee Byeong-ha, to pay 2 million won (US$1,700) in fines. Lee, who goes by the stage name Leeha, distributed a total of some 18,000 leaflets in Seoul and other major cities between 2014 and 2015.

A 38-year-old actor, identified only by his surname Han, was also ordered to pay 200,000 won for collaborating with Lee in May last year.

“The defendants said it was a fair expression of their political views, but considering the amount, the location and how the leaflets were spread, their actions cannot be justified,” the court said in the previous ruling.  [Yonhap]