▲ President Lee Jae Myung speaks during a Cabinet meeting held at Cheong Wa Dae in Seoul on Feb. 10, 2026. (Yonhap)

Lee-drug crimes

Lee instructs authorities to beef up crackdown on drug crimes

By Kim Eun-jung

SEOUL, Feb. 10 (Yonhap) -- President Lee Jae Myung on Tuesday instructed relevant authorities to ramp up crackdowns on drug crimes to better track down increasingly sophisticated trafficking methods.

"Drug problems make people sick and are closely linked to the underground economy," Lee said during a Cabinet meeting, calling for the mobilization of all available resources to combat drug crimes.

Lee said drugs are being smuggled not only by individual travelers but also through cargo containers, including cases in which narcotics are dropped offshore near the southern island of Jeju, as well as via international mail deliveries.

He urged the Korea Customs Service to accelerate the implementation of his directive to reinforce personnel at regional postal distribution hubs to detect drugs concealed in mail, warning that "people are being contaminated."

Lee also stressed the need to keep a regular check on law enforcement officers exposed to narcotics during crackdown operations, citing reports that some senior police officers had defied drug tests.

According to the National Police Agency, 893 senior police officers underwent drug tests without prior notice last year and all tested negative, while 18 refused to take the tests, saying they did not want to be treated as potential criminals.

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