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| The Coast Guard has seized 35 kilograms of cocaine from a container ship in the southern port city of Busan, officials said Saturday. Courtesy of Southern Regional Coast Guard Headquarters, Yonhap |
The Coast Guard has seized 35 kilograms of cocaine from a container ship in the southern port city of Busan, officials said Saturday.
The drug has an estimated street value of 105 billion won (US$93.94 million), the authorities added.
The packages were found on a Liberia-flagged ship, which departed from Colombia Dec. 15 and arrived at Busan New Port, Jan. 19. Their exteriors had a scorpion-shaped logo, which is usually used by Colombian drug cartels.
The authorities tracked the 140,000-ton vessel after being tipped off that a large amount of cocaine was hidden in it. The cargo ship was a regular visitor to Busan and traveled from the South American country via the United States and the Panama Canal to South Korea and then on to China.
The ship had Greek, Russian and Ukrainian crew members. They are being questioned over how the narcotics were smuggled and whether they were involved, the Coast Guard said. (Yonhap)
