Police on South Korea’s Jeju Island announce the arrest of 12 people accused of being part of a drug smuggling ring. Photo by Yonhap News Service/UPI
JEJU ISLAND, South Korea, Jan. 27 (UPI) — Authorities on Jeju Island have busted a drug smuggling ring, arresting 12 people accused of trying to import methamphetamine into South Korea through the popular tourist resort island.
The Jeju Provincial Police Agency’s Narcotics Crime Investigation Unit said in a statement Monday that the arrests come after a months-long investigation that began in late October after a non-Korean smuggled about 1.2 kilograms, or 2.5 pounds, of methamphetamine into Jeju in his suitcase.
Police said the alleged courier was a Chinese national in his 30s who departed an airport in Thailand on Oct. 23 for Jeju via Singapore, according to local media.
A police report from late October states that after arriving on Jeju on Oct. 24, the suspect posted an advertisement on social media for a Korean to deliver the package to the mainland.
Jeju Island is visa-free for nationals from all but 23 countries, but those entering visa-free cannot then travel to mainland Korea without proper authorization.
According to police, a Korean man in his 20s replied to the advertisement and received the bag from the suspect on Oct. 27.
Suspecting the bag to contain a bomb, the unidentified Korean citizen contacted the police, resulting in authorities seizing the bag of drugs and the arrest of the suspect at a hotel in Jeju’s northeastern coastal village of Hamdeok.
Through the investigation, Jeju police identified what they described as a “tightly structured distribution network” of drug smuggling, distribution, sale and use.
“Over a three-month period, investigators persistently tracked suspects through stakeouts and investigative trips to Seoul and other regions,” the Jeju Provincial Police Agency said Monday in a statement.
Jeju police said Monday that they have requested an Interpol Red Notice for the operation’s ringleader and smuggling coordinator.
Of the 12 people arrested, seven remain in pretrial detention, according to authorities, who identified two of the arrested as distributors of the alleged drug smuggling organization and five buyers who had received and used methamphetamine.
“Although investigators faced significant difficulties in tracking the organization’s cell-based structure — where accomplices repeatedly recruited couriers through part-time employment under the direction of overseas ringleaders — police ultimately dismantled the domestic-foreign national network through long-term surveillance and extended investigative operations,” Jeju police said.
The development comes as packages of drugs, often ketamine, have repeatedly been discovered washed ashore on Jeju since September.
On Jan. 9, the Jeju Regional Maritime Police Agency announced that the drugs that have washed ashore stem from “a large-scale drug loss incident” in waters off western Taiwan in July. Taiwanese authorities discovered about 140 kilograms, or 308 pounds, of ketamine disguised in green and silver tea bag-style packaging in its waters.
Authorities continue to investigate the criminal group responsible.
A total of 34 kilograms, or 74 pounds, of drugs have washed ashore in Jeju since September, with the last discovery of narcotics in the province occurring Dec. 9 on Udo, a small islet off eastern Jeju.