As South Korea grapples with increasing synthetic drug smuggling cases from China, it has chosen to ally itself with the U.S.-led Global Coalition to Address Synthetic Drug Threats. The move is widely seen as a strategy to pressure Beijing to combat the rising tide of synthetic drug trafficking.
South Korean police recently unveiled a major drug smuggling case, implicating 47 Chinese nationals, which include six naturalized Korean citizens of Chinese descent. The incident has sparked serious concerns about the increasing drug trade within the country.
On July 6, Korean police disclosed that among those arrested, a couple owning a Chinese food store in Incheon, known only as Mr. and Mrs. A, are suspected of smuggling about 50,000 painkiller tablets—Compound Aminopyrine Phenacetin Tablets—produced in China into South Korea.
These painkillers have been banned or withdrawn from the market in most industrialized countries due to causing major blood-related adverse reactions (pdf) and their carcinogenic and kidney-damaging properties.
From September 2021 to March of this year, these tablets were concealed within food parcels and shipped via international mail. Mr. and Mrs. A then leveraged social media networks to market these drugs, targeting Chinese nationals residing in South Korea.
Eight other Chinese nationals, all owners of Chinese food stores in Suwon, Shixing, and Pyeongtaek in Gyeonggi-do, are suspected of selling these smuggled painkillers. They also allegedly sold compounded licorice tablets containing illegal substances directly smuggled from China.
Furthermore, 37 Chinese individuals between their 20s and 70s are facing prosecution for purchasing and using these drugs in South Korea.
The seized painkillers, which contain the psychotropic drug phenobarbital, are commonly sold as antipyretics and analgesics in China. However, they are classified as controlled substances in South Korea, where their use is restricted to prescription only. These painkillers can cause various side effects, such as insomnia, depression, hallucinations, and forgetfulness during withdrawal.
Also called the compounded licorice tablets, often used in China for soothing coughs and expelling phlegm, contain codeine and morphine, derived from opium. In South Korea, these substances are considered illegal narcotics. Long-term use can impair cognitive function and memory, and an overdose can trigger shock or convulsions.
South Korean laws state that anyone possessing, selling, or using these drugs can face imprisonment of up to 10 years or a fine of up to 200 million won (about $150,000), according to Yonhap News Agency.
Despite the suspects’ claims of ignorance about the illegal status of these painkillers in South Korea, the police’s discovery of their concealment tactics within food courier boxes points to intentional wrongdoing.
Lee Sung-sun, head of the security and search team at the Daejeon Police Department, said, “[these] painkillers are sold in Korea at a price 10 times higher than their local price in China.” He added that the recent uptick in drug trafficking, facilitated through social media, is alarming.
Adding to this concern, South Korean authorities in April disrupted a Chinese gang’s operation that involved smuggling and selling painkillers via social media. The group consisted of a Korean Chinese man, his Chinese wife, and his mother, who had allegedly smuggled 5,000 painkillers from China and sold them to over 50 individuals.
Students Targeted with Drug-Laced Drink
In April, an incident involving a so-called “drug-laced drink” distributed in Seoul gained attention across South Korea. President Yoon Suk Yeol expressed his alarm, stating it’s distressing to see that illegal drugs are easy to find among adolescents, leaving them in jeopardy, and called for the perpetrators to face severe punishment.
South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol speaks at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, on Oct. 25, 2022. (Jeon Heon-kyun/Pool/Getty Images)
On April 3, members of a criminal group distributed a dubious drink to high school students in Seoul’s renowned Daechi-dong tutorial street. They marketed it as a “recently developed memory and concentration enhancer” under the guise of a trial program. The beverage was falsely labeled with the logo of a prominent pharmaceutical company and marketed as “Mega ADHD” for memory and concentration.
Some students reported feeling “dizzy” after consuming the drink. Parents, noticing physical abnormalities in their children, promptly alerted the police. Investigations later revealed the students tested positive for methamphetamine.
The culprits collected the contact details of the students’ parents under the pretext of gathering “purchase intention” information. They then demanded some 100 million won ($75,700) from the parents, threatening that they would report the children to the police for drug charges.
Interim findings from Korean authorities in mid-April unveiled that the incident was a sophisticated scheme orchestrated by a fraudulent drug trafficking gang operating out of China. The police confirmed that each 100-milliliter bottle of the drug-infused drink contained 0.1 grams of methamphetamine, a dosage significantly larger than the usual single dose of 0.03 grams.
In addition to referring three Korean suspects to the prosecution, South Korean police have identified three individuals in China implicated in the crime and issued an Interpol Red Notice for the arrest of two Chinese and one Korean suspect.
Chinese National Arrested for Trafficking Meth into Korea
On June 23, South Korean authorities arrested 19 individuals, including a Chinese woman in her 40s, coined Ms. B, on charges related to drug trafficking from China into the country.
Ms. B allegedly purchased 3.2 kilograms of methamphetamine from China over six separate instances between February and March. She is accused of selling drugs within South Korea through middlemen. The total haul, worth around 2.24 billion won (about $1.7 million), could be used by over 106,000 people.
The police are determined to track down the local ringleader and the overseas orchestrator of the drug trafficking operation.
According to data from the Korean Grand Prosecutor’s Office, over 18,000 drug dealers were investigated by the Ministry of Justice in 2022. This record-high figure marks a 45.8 percent increase from 2018. The number of foreigner-involved drug-related crimes has nearly tripled in the five years from 2018 to 2022, highlighting a troubling upward trend.
US Assembles Coalition
To combat the rising abuse of the narcotic painkiller fentanyl, the U.S. has marshaled an international coalition against illegal synthetic drugs, with participation from 84 countries, including South Korea.
As China is the primary source of raw materials for the illegal production of the analgesic fentanyl, forming the international coalition is seen as a strategic move to exert pressure on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP).
On the brink of the coalition’s launch, Todd Robinson, Assistant Secretary of State for International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, stated during a telephone press conference that China needs to intensify its efforts to disrupt the supply chain of illegal synthetic drugs.
“Part of the reason we’re trying to bring this coalition together is to engage other countries in their efforts against the supply chain, and part of their responsibility is going to be engaging with the People’s Republic of China (PRC),” Robinson said.
A bag full of bags of fentanyl pills seized by DEA Los Angeles. (Courtesy of DEA Los Angeles)
Deadly Drug
Fentanyl overdose has become the leading cause of death for young Americans since 2019. U.S. authorities say that China remains the primary source of precursor chemicals, which are then processed and manufactured into synthetic opioids by Mexican drug cartels to bring into the United States.
Fentanyl is a powerful synthetic opioid, up to 50 times more potent than heroin and up to 100 times stronger than morphine. Manufacturers of illegal drugs add fentanyl to heroin, cocaine, methamphetamines, and other drugs to make the drugs more powerful and cheaper to produce.
Just two milligrams of the synthetic opioid—equivalent to 10–15 grains of table salt—is considered a lethal dose. Laboratory testing is the only way to know how much fentanyl is concentrated in a pill or powder.
Fentanyl has remained the leading cause of death for Americans aged between 18 and 45 since 2019, surpassing suicide, car accidents, COVID-19, and cancer, according to CDC data compiled by the U.S. advocacy group Families Against Fentanyl in a December 2021 report.
In 2021, the number of drug overdose deaths in the United States surpassed 100,000. Illicit fentanyl accounted for over 64,000 of those deaths, which has doubled since 2019.
The majority of fentanyl is mass-produced in Mexico using chemicals from China before being pressed into pills or mixed with other counterfeit pills made to look like Xanax, Adderall, or oxycodone.
The counterfeit drugs are then sold to unaware buyers. Most people using fentanyl assume they are given heroin and mix it with other drugs or overdose.
An August 2021 report (pdf) by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said Beijing’s cooperation with the United States has lagged in money laundering investigations, criminal prosecution, and legal assistance in ongoing cases.
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