[Getty Images Bank]
[Getty Images Bank]

Police arrested 5,203 drug offenders and detained 1,039 during a concentrated crackdown in the first half of this year, with online drug offenders accounting for roughly 40 percent of the total.

The Korean National Police Agency's National Investigation Headquarters said Sunday it will conduct a second-half crackdown from Monday through Dec. 31, targeting new synthetic drugs, prescription narcotics, online drug trafficking and drug crimes involving foreign nationals.

The first-half crackdown ran from March through June, yielding 5,203 arrests and 1,039 detentions — up 94 (1.8 percent) and 75 (7.8 percent), respectively, from the same period last year.

Particularly notable was the rise in supply-chain offenders — those involved in manufacturing, smuggling and distribution — who numbered 2,040, or 39.2 percent of all arrests, up from 1,860 (36.4 percent) in the same period last year.

Online drug offenders totaled 2,178, making up 41.9 percent of all arrests — an increase of 300 from the same period last year, when 1,878 online offenders (36.8 percent) were apprehended. Foreign national drug offenders rose by 114 year-on-year to 848.

Among foreign national offenders, 400 — or 47.2 percent — were classified as supply-side criminals, a higher share than the 39.2 percent recorded for drug offenders overall.

Psychotropic drug offenders, including those involving methamphetamine, synthetic cannabis and ketamine, numbered 4,300 in the first half, accounting for 82.6 percent of all arrests.

Police said they also focused investigative resources on blocking overseas drug flows, including the arrest of a suspect who smuggled 42 kilograms of ketamine from the United Kingdom into Daegu Airport, in cooperation with relevant agencies.

Illegal prescription drug offenders numbered 337, up 9.1 percent from the same period last year. By contrast, drug offenses in entertainment districts such as clubs fell from 191 to 84, a decline police attributed in part to pan-government joint inspections.

During the first-half crackdown, police extradited and arrested Park Wang-yeol, the alleged mastermind of a Philippine drug network, along with overseas supplier Choi Byeong-min, and recovered 3.84 billion won in criminal proceeds.

In the second half, police plan to intensify enforcement focused on online drug trafficking and drug crimes involving foreign nationals.

On the online front, dedicated teams at provincial and metropolitan police agencies will concentrate investigations on operators of drug-selling channels, advertising brokers, couriers and smugglers active on SNS platforms including Telegram.

A dedicated 41-member virtual asset tracking and investigation team will also be deployed to counter drug transactions conducted through virtual assets.

For drug crimes involving foreign nationals, police plan to strengthen intelligence gathering through international crime investigation units, focusing on areas with high concentrations of foreign residents and merchant associations.

"We will strengthen coordination with overseas law enforcement agencies and domestic bodies such as customs to block the inflow of narcotics into the country, and concentrate our investigative capabilities on arresting those involved in domestic drug distribution," said Hong Seok-gi, head of the National Investigation Headquarters.


woo@heraldcorp.com