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Diver finds 28 kilograms of cocaine while removing barnacles from cargo ship
2024-04-20
Prosecutors began an investigation after discovering cocaine on a cargo ship that arrived from Mexico with an amount that could be injected into 940,000 people.
The Daegu District Prosecutors' Office said Monday that they confiscated 28.43 kilograms (65 pounds) of cocaine from a 25,000-ton vessel that departed from Mexico and anchored in a harbor in Ulsan on April 5.
The confiscation process was conducted in collaboration with the Korea Customs Service.
The amount of confiscated cocaine is worth some 14.2 billion won ($10.15 million), according to the prosecutors’ office.
Prosecutors added that they are tracking down the cocaine smuggling route in cooperation with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
According to the prosecutors’ office, the cocaine was found in the ship’s sea chest, a compartment where ocean water flows in to balance the vessel or regulate its temperature.
The compartment is usually submerged underwater as it is located at the bottom part of the ship.
On April 6, a diver reported a suspicious bag that they discovered while removing barnacles on the ship’s sea chest.
Inside the bag, there were 28 one-kilogram wrapped blocks of cocaine. Two blocks had a GPS navigation system attached to them.
The Daegu Regional Customs confirmed that the material was cocaine after conducting a simple reagent test.
Following the confirmation, the Daegu District Prosecutors’ Office seized the drugs and the ship's crew members’ phones, then conducted a search operation of the vessel.
They also requested a review to check if the diver, the vessel's captain or crew members used the illegal drug. They are additionally analyzing the ship’s arrival and departure routes.
The ship is a Singapore-flagged vessel used for transporting zinc and lead.
The vessel departed Mexico on March 4, had a layover in Canada from March 16 to 19 and arrived in Ulsan on April 5.
The ship was scheduled to visit Japan and then enter a port in New Zealand.
Prosecutors said that they did not find any circumstantial evidence that the crew members were involved in smuggling the drug.
They added that they believe the cocaine was hidden in the sea chest of the cargo ship for smuggling last year, but was abandoned after failing to retrieve it as planned.
“According to the ship’s company, it last cleaned the sea chest in June of last year,” an authority of the prosecutors’ office said. “We assume that it was abandoned for about a year based on the yearlong GPS batteries being dead and barnacles being found on the bag holding the cocaine.”
Most cocaine smuggling cases recently discovered in Korea were found on ships that were laying over in the country or in cargo that failed to be unloaded in a different country.
Early this year, 100 kilograms of cocaine were discovered on a ship that departed from Brazil and anchored in Busan. In 2021, 400 kilograms of cocaine were found on a ship anchored in Busan.
“We will continue to cooperate closely with related domestic and foreign institutions to respond to drug smuggling crimes and thoroughly monitor drugs to prevent them from entering the country,” prosecutors said.
| 번호 | 기사목록 | 날짜 | 조회수 |
|---|---|---|---|
| >> |
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2024-04-20 | 818 |
| 59 |
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2024-04-19 | 4455 |
| 58 |
 |
2024-04-18 | 4362 |
| 57 |
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2024-04-17 | 4299 |
| 56 |
 |
2024-04-16 | 4205 |
| 55 |
 |
2024-04-15 | 4017 |
| 54 |
 |
2024-04-14 | 3827 |
| 53 |
 |
2024-04-13 | 3606 |
