38 foreign drug offenders arrested

Thirty-eight foreign drug offenders were rounded up in a recent crackdown, the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency said yesterday.



Among them are 36 industrial trainees from Thailand, 23 of whom were arrested. The other 13 were sent back to their home country as they were found to be illegally employed, said the agency.



Posing as a migrant worker, a Thai drug trafficker distributed drugs such as methamphetamine and Yaba, a relatively new tablet containing a mixture of ethamphetamine and caffeine, to his colleagues.



Two Canadians were also booked for illegal drug use. They turned out to be working as English teachers at an elementary school in Seoul and a language academy in Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, respectively.



They are suspected of selling and using MDMA, commonly known as ecstasy, at a club in southern Seoul for three months since December last year.



According to a report released by the Supreme Prosecutors` Office, the number of drug crimes committed by foreign nationals in Korea last year was 928, accounting for almost 10 percent of the total 9,898 drug crime cases.



In January and February, a total of 131 foreigners from 12 countries were indicted on charges of illegal drug consumption, the prosecution report showed.



Of them, 99 were from Thailand, 12 from the United States, four from China and three from Canada.



"The number of foreign drug offenders is increasing faster than that of Koreans," said Won Myung-yeon, an investigator at the Gyeonggi Provincial Police Agency.



"As more foreigners are visiting Korea, especially from China and Thailand, which are comparatively lenient on drug use, a growing number of foreign workers are becoming major drug consumers here," said Won.



By Lee Ji-yoon





(jylee@heraldm.com)