The National Intelligence Service said on the 7th that, together with the Ministry of Justice and the police, it arrested T, a 43-year-old Thai national and head of an international drug ring whom the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) had urgently requested be apprehended, at a hotel in Seoul's Gangnam the previous day and deported the person to Thailand at about 10 a.m. that day.
According to the Thai ONCB, T distributed various drugs targeting Thailand and other third countries over the past 25 years, including 11.5 tons of methamphetamine, 271 million yaba tablets, and 5 tons of ketamine. As a single organization's distribution volume, it is a scale rarely seen.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said 11.5 tons of methamphetamine is 30 times the total methamphetamine seizure of 376 kilograms detected domestically last year and is an amount that 380 million people could take. In domestic street value, it amounts to 4.6 trillion won. In the case of yaba, it is more than 732 times last year's domestic seizure of 124 kilograms and is enough for 270 million doses. The 5 tons of ketamine is also about 35 times last year's domestic seizure of 140 kilograms and is a quantity that 100 million people could take.
The arrest operation was carried out through close cooperation between the Korean and Thai authorities. The head of the Bangkok branch of the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board conveyed to the National Intelligence Service (NIS) International Crime Information Center the fact of T's entry into Korea and shared information in real time, and the Korean government formed a task force centered on the National Intelligence Service (NIS), the Ministry of Justice, and the police on Mar. 28 immediately after receiving a request for cooperation from the Thai authorities.
The National Intelligence Service (NIS) said it then began tracing movements, confirmed that T had entered Korea on a third-country passport and was staying in Gangnam, and arrested the person at 2 a.m. on the 6th.
The Thai government issued 50 arrest warrants over the past 10 years to apprehend T, but the person is known to have continued criminal activities while evading authorities' crackdowns.
An official at the National Intelligence Service (NIS) said, "This is a model case of international cooperation in which we swiftly arrested a major drug trafficker through organic cooperation based on a relationship of trust with the Thai Office of the Narcotics Control Board and cooperation among our government agencies," adding, "We will continue to strengthen cooperation with key overseas agencies to block the inflow of drugs into Korea and to track down drug organizations based overseas."