DRUG DEALING SPREAD TO FARMING COMMUNITY

[Anchor Lead]

Widespread drug use in Korean society is a major concern these days. Drugs have even reached farming communities where over 60 foreigners were rounded up by police for drug dealing.

[Pkg]

Two men wearing a mask and cap enter a building that is used as a lodge. Then they suddenly barge out. One trips and falls and is caught. The other flees. Six grams of methamphetamine and some 400 capsules of another synthetic drug known as yaba are found in their bags. The men, from Thailand, were trying to sell drugs to their fellow compatriots who came to Korea to work.

[Soundbite] (Farmer(VOICE MODIFIED)) : "We didn’t know the Thai workers were doing drugs. Their presence is a source of discomfort."

Altogether, 65 foreign nationals were apprehended by police for selling and using narcotics. Fourteen of them, known to be suppliers, have been arrested. The amount of illegal drugs they have distributed nationwide since April this year is worth some 500 million won. The dealers mainly targeted foreign workers based in farming towns in Gangwondo and Chungcheongbukdo provinces. They took advantage of the fact that they led a communal life and used a fixed communication network. The Thai workers found to have used them together at their lodge or local greenhouses. Police have also confiscated 100 million won worth of drugs including 13-hundred yaba capsules, as well as 13 million won in illegal profits.

[Soundbite] Woo Seok-gi(Gangwon Provincial Police Agency) : "They knew it’s illegal to sell yaba in S. Korea. so they hid yaba and meth inside an iron container"

Police are also tracking down those in charge of smuggling and distribution in Korea.