Thai national indicted in South Korea for import of 134,000 doses of meth
A Thai national has been arrested and indicted for allegedly smuggling 134,000 doses of methamphetamine into South Korea, Yonhap news agency reported.
According to the Suwon District Prosecutors Office in Suwon, south of Seoul, the Thai national, identified only as a 32-year-old, was handed over to a court for trial after being arrested for allegedly attempting to import the banned substance from Thailand via air freight earlier this month, Yonhap said.
The meth seized from the Thai national weighed 4 kilograms, which is reportedly enough for 134,000 doses and worth 13.4 billion won (THB380.6 million), prosecutors said.
The suspect has been charged with receiving the 4kg of meth hidden in bags of protein supplements through air freight on May 6 after being offered a reward of THB200,000, Yonhap reported.
The average amount of smuggled meth seized in South Korea over the past 16 years (2004-2019) was 33kg per year, and the meth seized from the Thai national amounted to about 12 per cent of the annual average seized, prosecutors said.
Law enforcement agencies arrested and indicted five other Thai nationals and two South Koreans on charges of smuggling various banned substances, including 170 grams of meth, 1,576 tablets of yaba, 97 grams of ketamine, 55 tablets of ecstasy (also known as MDMA) and 190 pieces of LSC, into South Korea via air mail from November last year to this month, Yonhap reported.