South Korean police arrest 70 people in a raid on ‘drug dealers using cryptocurrency’
Their active fight against cryptocurrency-based drug crime prolongs in South Korea. Recently 70 people were arrested by officers in Seoul.
Seoul Kyungjae cited this group in advertising their services in the purchase of drugs through the Telegram chats while he also claimed that they were involved in the sale of drugs for tokens including BTC.
South Korean Police: Stash led officers to criminal group’s activities
The officers said that the group, comprising 70 people, was involved in the distribution of different types of the drugs, including methamphetamine (crystal meth), ketamine, and synthetic marijuana. Police said that this group purchased raw materials in Vietnam, they had set up a crude laboratory in South Korea where they produced and stocked finished drugs.
On June 9, the Gangdong Police Station located in the Gangdong District in eastern Seoul declared that the group was charged with violating the Narcotics Control Act. They said 41 people from the group were detained. It’s stated that the group actively worked since September 2023 and engaged in the selling of drugs up to June 20 of the current year according to a spokesman.
Police recovered that the group made more than $4. 3 million from selling drugs to the consumers who transacted using the cryptocurrency. The spokesperson also stated that a citizen contributed to the police starting probes that resulted in their raids. This citizen claimed to have witnessed a young man loitering near a flowerbed in a residents’ compound. Officers obliged by searching the area and after some time, they discovered white powder in a ball form.
Police seize 40 kg of drugs
Police then followed the suspect with the help of CCTV, and eventually caught him at a house in Ansan, Gyeonggi Province four days later. They took away his phone in which information on a contactless transaction said to be involving cryptocurrency was retrieved from a man identified as his contact.
Based on this, the police arrested a 23-year-old man suspected to be the gang leader and the 21-year-old man said to be running a public chat on Telegram. The officers said they discovered 2,000 drug matrices, which enabled them to confiscate 40 kilograms of prohibited materials.
The drugs seized were cannabis resin, different forms of marijuana such as liquid marijuana, MDMA also known as ecstasy, LSD and phencyclidine also known as angel dust. Further, the police seized a total of 0.143 Bitcoin and other cash proceeds, which in total amounts to $7,273.
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Many gang members still at large
According to the sources the one of the group’s stashes was a pit “in the ground by a river” in Anseong, the part of Gyeonggi Province. Police said that they seized liquid drugs concealed in shampoo bottles at several places.
Several suspects of the alleged drug group are still out: the second man tagged by the police as a gang leader is in the Philippines but the police are working to have his passport cancelled. Police also held high expectations that Interpol is going to release a Red Notice for this so-called “gang leader.”
Another person presumed to be an operator of the Telegram drug-selling channel is also unidentified and still on the loose in South Korea, the police said.
