A large amount of suspected cocaine has been discovered on a foreign trade ship entering the country.
The Korea Customs Service and the Korea Coast Guard announced today (2nd) that they seized dozens of boxes containing approximately 20kg of suspected cocaine from a foreign trade vessel that docked at Gangneung’s Okgye Port.
According to the Coast Guard, the investigation began after receiving information from the U.S. FBI and HSI that drugs were hidden on vessel A (32,000 tons, bulk carrier). The vessel departed from Mexico and traveled through Ecuador, Panama, and China before arriving in Gangneung.
Both the Coast Guard and the Customs Service formed a joint search team consisting of 90 drug investigators from the East Sea Coast Guard and Seoul Customs, and two teams of drug detection dogs. The team boarded vessel A at 6:30 a.m. today to conduct a detailed search.
The search team detected a reaction from the drug detection dogs at a hidden room behind the engine room of vessel A, leading to the discovery of the drug boxes. A preliminary reagent test indicated that these boxes contained a substance suspected to be cocaine. The exact weight and composition will be confirmed through detailed analysis.
The Coast Guard and the Customs Service plan to focus on investigating the captain and 20 crew members of vessel A for any involvement in smuggling conspiracy and the route. They will also consider the possibility of connections to international drug trafficking organizations and plan to expand collaboration with U.S. investigative agencies.