Police bust drug ring smuggling 8 kg of methamphetamine

[Anchor]

A group that smuggled 8 kilograms of methamphetamine, enough for 200,000 doses, has been caught in the country.

They gathered elderly individuals in their 60s and 70s and had them hide drugs in chocolate wrappers or backpacks to transport them.

Reporter Shin Hyun-wook has the story.

[Report]

A white vehicle stops, and a man gets out.

He receives something and tries to leave, but after a struggle, he is subdued by police officers who were there to arrest him.

This man was arrested on suspicion of acting as a distributor for an international drug organization.

The drug organization was caught by the police for smuggling 8 kg of methamphetamine into the country.

The Nigerian leader of the drug organization, identified as A, recruited local couriers from three foreign countries to bring methamphetamine into the country.

The couriers were mainly elderly individuals in their 60s and 70s.

Leader A approached them by offering to help them obtain loans in Korea.

This is the methamphetamine brought in by a courier from Canada.

They took the back out of the backpack and placed vacuum-sealed methamphetamine inside, sprinkling coffee powder on the suitcase to confuse drug detection dogs.

A courier from Mexico also hid methamphetamine inside chocolate wrappers to enter the country.

The methamphetamine smuggled into the country amounts to 2 kg.

The police seized an additional 6 kg of methamphetamine from the couriers that had not yet been distributed.

This is valued at 20 billion won, enough for 200,000 people to use simultaneously.

[Kang Seon-bong/Head of Drug Crime Investigation Team 2, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: "We confirmed that three previous cases of methamphetamine and marijuana smuggling were also carried out under A's direction, and we are investigating seven Nigerians for organized crime under the Criminal Act."]

Leader A was confirmed to have been forcibly deported in 2008 after being caught selling drugs to foreigners in the country.

The police have charged 18 individuals, including couriers and users, and have requested an Interpol red notice for the fugitive leader A.

This is KBS News, Shin Hyun-wook.