String of drug busts shatters Korea's drug-free myth

A string of recent drug cases is eroding Korea’s lingering reputation as a drug-free country, highlighting how both Koreans and foreign nationals are being increasingly drawn into narcotics crime.

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said Monday that it referred 66 foreign nationals to the prosecution between March and October on charges including violating the Narcotics Control Act, with 30 of them being held in custody.

Many of the suspects were Southeast Asian students who entered the country on D-2 student visas or D-4 language training visas. Of the seven separate cases, one involved drug manufacturing plans and another smuggling, while five involved distribution, purchase and use.

One suspect set up equipment in a studio apartment to make ecstasy pills from powder and other materials smuggled into Korea, but was caught before obtaining them.

Six others were arrested in succession after investigators found evidence that they had smuggled large amounts of ecstasy, ketamine and other drugs into Korea through international mail in March. They operated in isolated cells and took orders from a ringleader via a messaging app, police said.

Drugs seized in the investigation, including 4,100 ecstasy pills and about 1.6 kilograms of ketamine, are worth an estimated 800 million won ($590,000), according to police.

This is not the first time foreign nationals have been caught smuggling drugs into Korea. Last month, the Korea Coast Guard Station Mokpo said it busted a Vietnamese trafficking ring that smuggled methamphetamine into the country by international parcel and distributed it nationwide.

The ring is accused of shipping the drug from Vietnam by air since January last year and supplying it to areas including Jeonnam-Gwangju Special Metropolitan City, Gyeonggi Province, North Gyeongsang Province, Busan, and Jeonju and Gunsan in North Jeolla Province.

The ring’s Korea-based leader vacuum-packed the drugs and hid them inside food products or Choco Pie wrappers, investigators found. The Coast Guard estimates the ring smuggled in at least 3.4 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth about 1.3 billion won and enough for 34,000 doses.

The cases come as drug crimes continue to climb in Korea. Prosecutors caught 23,403 drug offenders in 2025, nearly double the 11,916 caught in 2015. That year, the number of offenders per 100,000 people reached 23.1, stripping Korea of its drug-free status under a U.N. standard of fewer than 20. The rate rose to 44.7 in 2024.

Cases of teenagers caught smuggling drugs into the country have also jumped more than tenfold in four years. Such cases rose from two in 2022 to 23 in the first 10 months of this year, according to data released last week by the Korea Customs Service (KCS). The amount of drugs seized from teenagers surged more than 88-fold over the same period, from 54 grams to 4.8 kilograms.

Earlier this year, the KCS traced a parcel mailed from the Netherlands and caught a teenager who had received 400 cold medicine pills. The pills contained dextromethorphan, which can cause hallucinations and convulsions in high doses.

The KCS plans to step up inspections of travelers’ luggage, international mail and express shipments. It will also launch immediate investigations into anyone who brings in medicines containing narcotic ingredients repeatedly or in excessive quantities.