A South Korean man based in Suriname has been indicted on charges of smuggling cocaine from South America into Europe using Korean people as carriers, prosecutors here said Sunday.
The Seoul Central Prosecutors' Office said the 59-year-old man, surnamed Cho, is suspected of hiring 12 South Koreans in the South American country to deliver 48.5 kilograms of cocaine into European countries from 2004-2005.
The smuggled cocaine, enough for 1.6 million doses, has an estimated street value of 160 billion won ($140 million), representing the largest drug smuggling case ever busted in South Korea, the office said.
Cho was arrested in Brazil in 2009 and was extradited to South Korea last month at the request of the Korean authorities. He had fled home in 1994 after being on the wanted list for fraud.
Cho established a drug trafficking network in Suriname in cahoots with Latin America's largest drug cartel in the 1990s, while hiring cash-strapped people to sneak drugs into Europe, prosecutors said.
The drug mules, who included housewives and the unemployed, were paid 4-5 million won for each trip, with three of them having been caught and jailed in such countries as France and the Netherlands, they said.
Prosecutors said they were looking into Cho's possible involvement in additional drug smuggling cases. (Yonhap)
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