[Asia Economy Kim Sung-yeol, Intern Reporter] A man in his 60s who evaded customs authorities' surveillance for years by hiding small gold bars in specific body parts was sentenced to prison and ordered to pay a large fine.
On the 21st, the Incheon District Court Criminal Division 6 (Judge Oh Chang-hoon) announced that it sentenced Mr. A (68), who was indicted for violating the Customs Act, to 1 year and 6 months in prison and ordered a confiscation of 9.93 billion won.
The court stated the sentencing reasons, saying, "The crime was organized and continued over a long period, and the market value of the smuggled or exported gold bars exceeds 9.9 billion won. The defendant committed the crime as a carrier and later took charge of the entire transportation, showing a bad nature and heavy culpability."
Earlier, Mr. A was indicted on charges of smuggling 570 small gold bars (total 114 kg) weighing 200g each, worth 5.3 billion won, by hiding them inside his body during 114 entries from China to Incheon International Airport between March 2015 and January 2017.
Investigations revealed that Mr. A initially smuggled gold bars himself but later employed eight carriers to smuggle 385 small gold bars (total 77 kg).
He was also charged with smuggling out small gold bars worth 710 million won (total 14 kg) to Japan 14 times through Incheon Airport around March to April 2016.
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