▲ This photo provided by the Coast Guard shows investigators seizing drugs smuggled into a port in Busan on a freight ship. (PHOTO NOT FOR SALE) (Yonhap)

Coast Guard-anti-drug team

Coast Guard launches investigation team to fight maritime drug crimes

INCHEON, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- The Coast Guard has launched an investigation team dedicated to fighting a sharp increase in maritime drug smuggling, drug use by maritime workers and other drug crimes on the sea, officials said Friday.

The special drug investigation task force has 174 members and they have been assigned to the Coast Guard headquarters and 25 regional offices across the country to exclusively handle drug crimes, according to the officials.

The move came as South Korea has seen a upsurge in drug crimes in recent years.

The Coast Guard has identified a total of 861 drug crimes in the first nine months of this year, marking a more than 14-fold surge from the 60 drug cases it identified in all of 2017.

"Based on the new drug investigation team, the Coast Guard plans to strengthen its crackdown on large-scale drug smuggling via the sea, drug use by maritime workers and other drug crimes," an official said.

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