Yakuza member arrested for smuggling 636 kg of marijuana into South Korea

Smuggled marijuana / Courtesy of Suwon District Prosecutors' Office

An ethnic Korean member of a Japan-based yakuza syndicate has been arrested and indicted for smuggling into South Korea about 636 kilograms of marijuana — enough for roughly 1.27 million people to smoke at once, law enforcement authorities said Friday.

The amount seized is the largest ever among narcotics imported for domestic distribution, officials said.

The pan-government joint investigation unit on drug crimes said it detained and indicted the 53-year-old suspect, a member of the yakuza group, on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.

Authorities have also identified four Vietnamese nationals who allegedly sold the drugs to the suspect, sought arrest warrants for them and plan to request Interpol red notices.

The individual is accused of loading the marijuana into a shipping container departing from Thailand in early March and arranging for it to arrive at Incheon Port on March 23.

Investigators said he conspired with a drug trafficking organization based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, intending to distribute part of the marijuana in South Korea through Vietnamese networks and re-export the rest to yakuza groups in Japan.

He allegedly paid for the drugs in cryptocurrency to evade tracking, used a full container load shipping method and had the marijuana vacuum-sealed multiple times to reduce odor and volume, the joint investigation unit said.

The unit also found that he had ties to international drug networks, including plans to smuggle narcotics from Colombia and coordination with an unidentified contact in Spain.

While recent large-scale maritime smuggling cases typically involve drugs transiting through South Korea en route to third countries such as China, this case was aimed at domestic distribution, according to the authorities.

An official from the unit said the relatively high black market prices of narcotics in South Korea compared with Southeast Asia, along with the ease of contactless distribution methods known as “dead drops,” likely motivated efforts to develop South Korea as a new distribution and consumption market.

Acting on intelligence provided by the National Intelligence Service, investigators worked closely with the Korea Customs Service to track the shipment and vessel carrying the concealed marijuana, conducting a search and seizure immediately upon the ship’s arrival at Incheon Port to prevent distribution.

The customs agency said it plans to expand and deploy special inspection teams for imported cargo at major ports nationwide, develop risk-profiling criteria reflecting domestic and international trafficking patterns, and strengthen cargo inspections using portable and vehicle-mounted X-ray systems.