박보람
| 2023-10-26 17:09:56
drug scam-court
4 men sentenced to heavy prison terms for drug scam targeting students
SEOUL, Oct. 26 (Yonhap) -- A Seoul court sentenced four men to heavy prison terms ranging from seven to 15 years Thursday in a high-profile drug scam case, where young students were deceived into consuming drug-laced drinks.
The four men were charged in the drug scam, where drug-spiked beverages were distributed to teenage students in Seoul's southern Gangnam Ward in April, falsely labeled as products intended to enhance memory and concentration.
The parents of several students who received the drinks were later blackmailed with demands for money with threats to report their children to the police for drug charges.
Investigation has indicated the beverages contained three times as much methamphetamine as a usual dose, an amount that could result in serious bodily harm. Nine students consumed the drinks, and six of them experienced symptoms, including hallucinations.
The Seoul Central District Court sentenced one of the four defendants, surnamed Gil, to 15 years in prison on charges of producing 100 bottles of drug-laced beverages, distributing them through people he hired online and blackmailing parents for money.
Two of them, surnamed Park and Kim, were given prison terms of 10 years and eight years, respectively, on charges of supplying methamphetamine to Gil and manipulating telephone numbers for him.
The court also handed out a seven-year prison term to the other defendant, surnamed Lee, on charges of masterminding the drug scam. Police have confirmed that Lee was under arrest in China on illegal immigration charges and are in the process of repatriating him to South Korea.
"The defendants committed a new kind of crime that goes far beyond commonsense by combining voice phishing, socially-harmful drug crimes and malicious crimes that take advantage of underage people for private interest," the court said.
(END)
[ⓒ K-VIBE. 무단전재-재배포 금지]