Prosecutors said Monday they have arrested three people, including a local gang member, on suspicion of smuggling methamphetamine worth some tens of billions of won from China.
  

The Incheon District Prosecutors' Office said the 58-year-old member of a South Korean organized crime group and two others are suspected of trafficking 18.2 kilograms of methamphetamine, worth some 60 billion won (US$51 million), from China on Aug. 10. The amount is enough for hundreds of thousands of people to take at once, prosecutors said.
 
 
Under the directions of the gang member, a 60-year-old South Korean who authenticates meth in China allegedly received the drugs from a Chinese person, whose identity was withheld, in July.
  

The drugs were then brought into South Korea through a crew member of a 7,000-ton cargo ship, prosecutors said.
  

Prosecutors, together with the Incheon Main Customs and National Intelligence Service, arrested the three one by one based on the information that a crew member was planning to smuggle the drugs into the country.
  

Prosecutors said they were looking into a possible connection with a Japanese gang and chasing after local smugglers in collaboration with the Japanese authorities. (Yonhap)