By Lee Hyo-sik
Staff Reporter
Surging prices of gold and other gems prompted more people to attempt to bring precious metals into the country last year without paying customs duties to realize larger profits.
The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Thursday that it uncovered smuggling of gold and jewelry worth 58 billion won last year, up 17.6-fold from 3.3 billion won a year ago.
``High prices of gold and jewelry products encouraged more outbound travelers as well as smugglers to bring high-value metals back into the country illegally. Most of all, one case, in which a number of housewives and university students were caught trying to bring in 1.4 tons of gold bars worth 3.3 billion won, sharply pushed up the amount of detected smuggling of precious gems last year from 2006,'' a KCS official said.
Overall, the customs agency detected combined 6,696 cases of smuggling, illegal trade and foreign exchange transactions totaling 4.5 trillion won in 2007, the customs agency said. The number of cases rose 12 percent from a year earlier, but the sum of money fell 28 percent.
It exposed 2,849 customs law violations worth 770 billion won last year, mostly involving agricultural and textile products from China, as well as 904 cases of unlawful carry-in of confiscated fake watches, clothes and other goods worth 680 billion won.
The agency also uncovered 210 cases of illegal drug smuggling worth 53 billion won in 2007, up 22 percent from a year ago.
It found 2,364 cases of unlawful foreign currency transactions, totaling 2.4 trillion won, down 13 percent from 2006.
A number of individuals and companies were caught trying to send money illegally to their families living abroad and investing in overseas property, it said.
Many tried to bypass domestic banks by arranging currency trade deals with brokers working in both Korea and foreign countries. They deposit the Korean won in the brokers' bank accounts here and receive the equivalent in foreign currency when they travel abroad, it said.
Domestic companies also attempted to circumvent the foreign currency transaction law by setting up paper companies abroad.
The agency said it would further strengthen its search and monitoring efforts and establish a state-of-the-art customs system to deal with the rising illegal international trade in narcotics, counterfeit goods and unlawful foreign exchange transactions.