More than 200 bags of ketamine hidden in apartments and villas across the capital

Screenshot of SBS report on a man in his 30s arrested for hiding narcotics across Seoul neighborhoods. (SBS)
Screenshot of SBS report on a man in his 30s arrested for hiding narcotics across Seoul neighborhoods. (SBS)

A man in his 30s has been arrested for distributing narcotics by hiding them in residential neighborhoods across Seoul.

According to SBS, police received a report last month from a villa resident in Gangdong-gu, eastern Seoul, that a man had been seen crouching while opening a fire hose cabinet in the building’s hallway.

Officers dispatched to the scene found a bag containing 2 grams of ketamine inside the cabinet.

Police caught the suspect in Pohang, North Gyeongsang Province, earlier that month after tracing his movements through surveillance footage analysis.

The suspect, surnamed Kang, allegedly belonged to a drug trafficking organization and was responsible for obtaining large quantities of ketamine from locations designated by his superiors. He then handed them over to a packaging team within the group to be divided into 2-gram packets. Kang would then collect these and place the bags at locations agreed upon with buyers.

Ketamine, a dissociative anesthetic, is classified as a narcotic in South Korea due to its potential to cause visual and auditory hallucinations.

The amount of ketamine seized while being smuggled from overseas surged 17.3-fold over the past five years, from 5.9 kilograms in 2021 to 101.9 kilograms last year, according to data from the Korea Customs Service.

Police said they referred Kang to prosecutors on March 13 on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act and are continuing to track down senior members of the organization.


cjh@heraldcorp.com