Police conducted an intensive crackdown on narcotics in the first half of this year, arresting 5,203 drug offenders and detaining 1,039 of them. More than 40% of those caught were involved in drug transactions online, including on Telegram, and foreign drug offenders also increased from last year.
The Korean National Police Agency National Office of Investigation (NOI) said on the 2nd it will carry out a five-month intensive crackdown on narcotics in the second half from the 3rd through Dec. 31. Along with new and medical-use narcotics, it set online transaction and foreign drug crimes as core targets.
Police previously conducted the first-half crackdown from March to June. The number arrested rose by 94 and the number detained by 75 from the same period last year. The growth rate was 1.8% and 7.8%, respectively.
Offenders involved in supply and distribution—such as manufacturing, smuggling, and sales—numbered 2,040, accounting for 39.2% of all arrests. In the same period last year, there were 1,860, or 36.4% of the total. Police said the share of distribution offenders rose as investigations increasingly targeted manufacturing and sales networks rather than simple use.
There were 2,178 online drug offenders. They made up 41.9% of all arrests, up 300 from 1,878 in the same period last year. More than 4 out of every 10 drug offenders used online channels.
Foreign drug offenders also increased by 114 from last year to 848 arrested. Among them, 400 were supply offenders such as smugglers and sellers, accounting for 47.2%. That was 8 percentage points higher than the 39.2% share of supply offenders among all drug offenders.
Among those arrested, offenders related to psychotropic drugs such as methamphetamine, synthetic marijuana, and ketamine totaled 4,300, or 82.6%. Police said they focused investigative resources on cutting off overseas supply networks, including apprehending a suspect who hid 42 kilograms of ketamine in the United Kingdom and brought it into Daegu Airport in cooperation with foreign counterparts and customs.
A total of 337 people were caught illegally handling medical-use narcotics, up 9.1% from the same period last year. By contrast, drug offenders caught in nightlife districts such as clubs fell from 191 to 84. Police believe joint inspections across government agencies influenced the decline.
During the first-half crackdown, police repatriated from the Philippines and arrested drug ringleader Park Wang-yeol and overseas supplier Choi Byung-min. They also recovered 3.84 billion won in revenue from drug crimes.
In the second half, investigative manpower will be concentrated on tracking online sales networks. Dedicated teams at city and provincial police agencies plan to track not only those who run drug sales channels or broker advertisements on social media such as Telegram, but also couriers and smuggling coordinators.
For crimes in which drug payments are exchanged via virtual assets, a 41-member virtual asset tracking and investigation team will be deployed. For foreign drug crimes, the international crime investigation unit will gather related intelligence focusing on areas with dense foreign populations and local merchants' associations.
Hong Seok-gi, head of the National Office of Investigation (NOI), said, "We will strengthen links with overseas investigative bodies and domestic agencies such as customs to block narcotics from entering the country and concentrate our investigative capacity on arresting domestic distribution offenders."