Even if a person collected an "empty international mail box" from which drugs had actually been removed after being detected in a customs inspection, the person can be punished if they recognized the box as containing narcotics, the Supreme Court ruled.
According to legal sources on the 25th, the Supreme Court's Third Division (presiding Justice Lee Suk-yeon) on the 30th of last month finalized a three-year prison sentence for a person surnamed Jeong (32), who acted as an intermediary distributor known as a "dropper" under instructions from a drug seller.
According to the court, around mid-July last year, Jeong agreed to receive money from a drug seller he met on a Telegram job-seeking channel and took on the role of dropper. The task was to collect international mail boxes containing narcotics that the seller had shipped into the country.
Following the seller's instructions, on the evening of July 31 last year, Jeong collected an international mail box containing a toy in Sangnok-gu, Ansan, Gyeonggi Province. Narcotics were hidden in the toy inside the box, but Incheon Airport Customs had detected the shipment and already removed the drugs.
Jeong was arrested over the incident, and prosecutors indicted under the Narcotics Transaction Prevention Act. Under this law, a person who transfers, receives, or possesses drugs or other items while recognizing them as narcotics is subject to up to five years in prison or a fine of up to 5 million won.
Jeong's side argued, "After collecting the international mail box, we confirmed that it did not contain narcotics and threw the box away like trash," and claimed it could not be considered "possession" under the Narcotics Transaction Prevention Act.
The court of first instance did not accept Jeong's argument and found the charge guilty. The bench determined Jeong appeared to have recognized that the box contained narcotics. Jeong opened the box at home and dismantled the toy.
Jeong challenged the first-trial ruling, but the appeals court dismissed the appeal. The bench found, "Jeong recognized that narcotics were inside the toy contained in the international mail box and possessed it."
The Supreme Court dismissed the appeal, finding no error in the lower court's judgment.
In addition, on Aug. 1 last year, Jeong collected an international mail box at a building in Pyeongtaek that a drug seller had smuggled from the Netherlands and had delivered. Inside the box were 842 tablets of MDMA, known as "ecstasy." The amount was worth 25.26 million won.
Prosecutors indicted Jeong for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (psychotropic). Under this law, drug offenders with drug value of at least 5 million won and less than 50 million won are subject to life imprisonment or at least seven years in prison.
The first-trial bench sentenced Jeong to three years in prison by combining the charges under the Narcotics Transaction Prevention Act. It reflected in sentencing that Jeong was a first-time offender, the collected MDMA did not circulate domestically, and Jeong cooperated with the investigation. With this Supreme Court ruling, the first-trial sentence was finalized as is.