English websites conduit for drug sellers

This is the second in a two-part series on illegal drug trafficking in Korea and ways to fight it. ― ED.

By Special reporting team

The captured image of a website for marijuana traders

Korean authorities are not especially good at monitoring information in English advertizing the drug for sale.

Drug dealers advertise marijuana for sale in English on websites hosted overseas, where Korea Communications Standards Commission (KCSC), the nation’s Internet censorship body, does not monitor content.

A simple online search can immediately connect potential buyers from Korea with sellers of illegal drugs, most notably marijuana, which is legally sold for recreational use in Uruguay and some parts of the United States.

W3Techs, a website that provides information about Internet technology, reported last year that 55.7 percent of all Internet content was written in English, while merely 0.4 percent was in Korean. And the 0.4 percent is what the KCSC mostly focuses on.

“We mostly monitor content written in Korean,” said a KCSC official, who refused to be named, The Korea Times on Wednesday. “This does not mean that we do not monitor content in English. But at this point, we do not have anyone assigned to that task.”

When the KCSC finds illegal or offensive content online ― such as sites that facilitate organ trafficking, prostitution and sales of illegal drugs ― the agency blocks such websites so that their content is no longer visible.

However, the official said the KCSC lacks the manpower to monitor the huge volume of content generated online every day, as it has fewer than 30 staff members on the team assigned to that task.

But the censorship organization also operates in a passive manner, which makes the situation worse. According to the official, in most cases, the KCSC learns of illegal websites only after police and prosecutors report them.

Another problem is that the police and prosecutors do not fare any better in monitoring content written in English that could be considered as evidence of criminal activity.

“We have not investigated any websites in English to track down illegal drugs,” said an official of the Busan Metropolitan Police Agency. “Even if we find sellers or buyers on English websites, if they are uncooperative, it is difficult to investigate them.”

Also, the investigation process takes a long time. The police said it takes about two to three months just to determine who has uploaded illegal content.

Besides, it is impossible for Korean police to investigate drug dealers in countries where such activities are legal, said an official from the Incheon Metropolitan Police Agency.

So investigators try to catch drug sellers in Korea by pretending to be buyers. And sometimes this works.

One drug dealer whom The Korea Times contacted asked for payment upfront, saying he was afraid of falling into the hands of the police again.

“I was fined 2 million won after I was traced online by police who claimed to be weed smokers,” he said.

However, more effective investigation methods are necessary to address the problem.

Meanwhile, the Korea Customs Service said it seized 48.6 billion won ($47 million) worth of illegal drugs from online transactions in the first half of this year. This is 24 times the corresponding figure for 2013, and the numbers are expected to rise.