A Taiwanese man in his 70s who entered Gimhae International Airport carrying a travel bag with 5.1 kilograms of methamphetamine from Cambodia was sentenced to a heavy prison term.
On the 6th, according to legal sources, the Busan District Court Criminal Division 5 (Presiding Judge Kim Hyun-soon) sentenced A, a Taiwanese man in his 70s who was put on trial on charges of violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes (narcotics), to six years in prison.
A is accused of receiving a suitcase with methamphetamine hidden inside in front of a hotel in Cambodia on Mar. 22 this year and bringing it into Korea. The methamphetamine in the backpack weighed 5.1 kilograms and was worth about 511.3 million won.
During the trial, A argued that he did not know he was transporting methamphetamine. He said a person he came to know through an acquaintance offered, "If you deliver an item for money laundering, I will pay you $1 million," and claimed he understood the bag contained a "security token."
However, the court determined that A at least implicitly recognized the possibility that the bag contained drugs. This was because he stated to investigators and in court that he had seen news reports such as, "If a stranger asks you to move a bag, it may contain drugs, so you should be careful."
The bench explained the reasoning for the sentence, saying, "The amount of methamphetamine the defendant brought in is quite large, and the defendant denies the crime and is not reflecting."