TV celeb stands trial over alleged drug use Robert Holley, a naturalized Korean citizen from the United States and TV personality, arrives at the Seoul Western District Court on Aug. 9, 2019, to attend the first hearing in his trial over alleged drug use. (Yonhap)
Things just went from bad to worse for television personality Robert Holley:
Naturalized celebrity Robert Holley is taken to the Suwon District Court for a warrant review for his arrest on a drug charge on Wednesday. [YONHAP]
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.
Here is a strange story of a Mormon missionary turned international lawyer and Korean citizen arrested for using drugs in South Korea:
Robert Holley is escorted to Suwon Nambu Police Station, Tuesday, after being questioned at the Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency over allegations of using illegal drugs. Yonhap
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.
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.
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:
Fourteen sailors from the nuclear reactor department of the aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan face disciplinary action in connection to LSD abuse, Navy officials confirmed this week.
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.
Keiley said the 14 reactor sailors charged or facing potential charges came from a department with more than 400 personnel. [Navy Times via a reader tip]
Probably the most surprising thing I learned from this article is that only 2% of freight is inspected coming into South Korea:
An investigator shows bags of methamphetamine, which are part of the 112 kilograms of the drug that the police confiscated, at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Oct. 15, 2018. (Yonhap)
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)
I had no idea that the name of the infamous aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima was actually someone’s name:
Gov. Eddie Calvo’s former spokesman Troy Torres was arrested in connection with conspiracy to distribute drugs after police found methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia in a residence, police said Saturday.
Torres, 37, of Mangilao was arrested Friday after the Mandaña Drug Task Force and SWAT raided a house on Chrysanthemum Street in Latte Heights, according to Guam Police Department spokesman Sgt. Paul Tapao.
Torres, along with the two others he was arrested with — John Vincent Aguigui Salas, 35, and Enolagay Aliga, 27, both of whom were arrested in connection with illegal possession of a Schedule II controlled substance, according to Tapao — were released Saturday afternoon, according to the Department of Corrections. [Pacific Daily News]
You can read more at the link, but the Enola Gay airplane actually took off from the island of Tinian which is a short distance north of Guam in the Mariana Islands chain. I wonder if her parents named her after the plane?
My favorite part of the below story is how one of the officers was accused of not completing their Anti-Terrorism Level-1 training. Wearing a PT belt might be more effective at stopping the below stupidity than the AT Level-1 training:
Then Lt. Col. Roger T. McDuffie in a photo released by the U.S. Marines.
Three married U.S. Marine officers have found themselves under investigation for a night in February that went off the rails in Bogotá, involving allegations they went drinking with some local women, were slipped illicit drugs, robbed of U.S. property and landed in a local hospital emergency room.
The men may have fallen prey to what is known as “burundanga poisoning,” according to a report on the investigation conducted by the Marine Corps Forces, South, a Southern Command subsidiary, and obtained by the Miami Herald.
The report recommended that Marine Col. Roger T. McDuffie, a Harrier pilot who serves as the chief of operations at the unit known as MARFORSOUTH; Maj. Andrew L. Mueller, described as a theater security cooperation planner; and Maj. Mauricio Saenz, exercise planner, face “appropriate administrative or judicial proceedings.” [Miami Herald]
You can read the rest at the link, but these three ended up bringing the prostitutes back to their rooms at the hotel, while walking by other Marines at 4:30 in the morning mustering to get on a shuttle bus to the airport. After getting to their rooms they were then robbed of their government phones and laptops among other personal possessions by the prostitutes. To make this story even more incredible is that one of the officers actually used his government travel card to take out a cash advance to pay two of the prostitutes.
