By Park Si-soo
Staff Reporter

Police apprehended a group of drug smugglers, including foreign actors and native English teachers.

Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said Thursday it had rounded up three people, including one unidentified American actor who performed on the MBC entertainment program ``Surprise'' and one Korean-American identified as Choi for smuggling in illegal drugs they bought on a Web site.

Among other detainees are seven drug users including a Canadian actor and a native English-speaking teacher at an elementary school, police said.

According to the police, the smugglers bought illegal drugs including Benzylpiperazine (BZP), worth 17 million won ($11,000) on a U.K.-based drug-selling Web site between August 2005 and last July and then brought them in through international postal services.

``We asked the U.K police to shut down the Web site. We will continue the investigation to contain smuggling attempts using international postal services,'' a police officer said. ``Drugs that are advertised as legal on foreign Web sites are mostly categorized as illegal here. So buyers of those drugs will face punishment.''

pss@koreatimes.co.kr