Gym teacher at USFK base sentenced for smuggling narcotic painkillers

By Bahk Eun-ji

A gym teacher at an army base of the United States in Korea has received a suspended jail term for smuggling more than 400 pills of two narcotic painkillers, morphine and oxycodone, into the country in a chocolate box.

The Incheon District Court said, Wednesday, that it had sentenced the man in his 50s to two years and six months in prison, suspended for three years, for violating the law on drug management.

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The man was indicted on charges of smuggling chocolate boxes containing 435 pills of morphine and oxycodone by international express mail through Incheon International Airport at 8:43 a.m. last year Dec. 17.

Oxycodone is an opioid medication to help relieve severe pain.

The court pointed out that his charges are not light, as drug-related crimes not only damage people's physical and mental health, but also have serious adverse effects on society, such as harming public health and causing other crimes.

However, the reason for handing down the suspended jail term was that he has no criminal history in Korea and seems to have purchased the pills for medical purposes only.