Over 23,000 drug offenders rounded up last year

▲ In this file photo, Park Wang-yeol (C), a South Korean national detained in the Philippines, arrives at Incheon airport, west of Seoul, on March 25, 2026, to face an investigation into alleged cross-border drug trafficking. The 48-year-old, who has been serving a 60-year prison sentence in the Philippines since 2022 for killing three South Koreans in 2016, is suspected of smuggling drugs into South Korea through accomplices via social media platforms and is known as a "drug kingpin" operating under the Telegram alias "Worldwide." (Yonhap)

govt-drugs

Over 23,000 drug offenders rounded up last year

SEOUL, June 1 (Yonhap) -- The government rounded up a total of 23,403 drug offenders through special crackdowns last year, with the number of online drug offenders arrested and drugs seized since the inauguration of President Lee Jae Myung reaching all-time highs, officials said Monday.

By agency, the prosecution booked 765 drug offenders and formally arrested 217 of them between June last year and March of this year, while seizing 1,042 kilograms of drugs during the same period, the Office for Government Policy Coordination said in a release highlighting the achievements in the fight against drugs in the first year of the Lee government.

Police apprehended 5,385 offenders by operating special teams dedicated to drug crimes between June last year and April this year, while also rounding up a total of 12,774 people through special crackdowns focused on new types of drugs and drugs for medical purposes, according to the data.

The customs agency detected 3,233 kilograms of drugs at the border in 1,181 cases for 10 months since Lee took office, an all-time high that represents a 307 percent increase from the same period of last year.

The Coast Guard also apprehended 129 offenders through intensive crackdowns, including hull inspections using underwater drones, and confiscated 29,121 poppy plants, while the food and drug administration uncovered 44 cases of abuse of drugs for medical purposes, including propofol.

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