[News Today] Massive drugs smuggled from Thailand

[LEAD]
A major drug trafficking ring has been caught smuggling marijuana and methamphetamine from Thailand into Korea.

Police say the group secretly brought in large amounts of narcotics and distributed them nationwide.

The seized drugs alone were enough for 36,000 doses. Among those involved was an active-duty Navy petty officer.

[REPORT]
A man looks around carefully before entering an airport restroom.

Another man with a suitcase soon follows.

A few minutes later, the man who went in first is seen leaving with the suitcase.

And the man who went in second, now wearing different clothes, leaves the restroom as if nothing happened.

They are a smuggler and a middleman seller belonging to a drug trafficking ring from Thailand.

The suitcase contained about ten kilograms of marijuana.

The middleman distributed the drugs by selling them from a car or burying the drugs in the ground and then telling customers to dig them out at night.

Choi Hye-rim / KBS reporter
This is the field where the smugglers had buried the drugs. They were dealing in such secluded places.

There were three smugglers who brought in marijuana from Thailand. Among them was a 20-year-old active Navy petty officer.

He first made contact with an overseas drug dealer on a cryptocurrency investment site. Then, he took leave from the Navy and went abroad without consent to smuggle in liquid marijuana disguised as shampoo.

The police have arrested a total of 76 smugglers, dealers, and users.

About a third of them were in their twenties and thirties.

Gang Seon-bong / Seoul Metropolitan Police
Young people skilled in using online systems and who can cover up as travelers are known to participate in drug trafficking to make money.

The police seized 36,000 doses of narcotics and Interpol has issued a Red Notice to track the key members of the Thai drug trafficking ring.

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