“A war on social drugs is urgently needed before drugs exceed manageable thresholds and spread as a national risk.” This was President Yoon Suk-yeol’s statement in October 2022. The current government established a joint response system among related government agencies such as the police, prosecution, and the Korea Customs Service to combat drugs.
In particular, the Korea Customs Service declared last year as the inaugural year of the “War on Drugs,” announcing, “We will block the inflow of narcotics from the border stage.” The Customs Service accounted for 85% of the major narcotics seizures in Korea from 2018 to 2022, and this year marks the second year of the war on drugs declared by the Customs Service.
On the 14th, the Customs Service announced that from May 2022 to April this year, a total of 1,459 cases involving 1,417 kg of narcotics were detected and seized at the border. Arithmetically, this means an average of two drug smuggling cases were detected daily during this period, and the total weight of seized narcotics is enough for 26 million people to use simultaneously.
Yearly status shows that while the number of drug smuggling cases increased this year, the weight decreased. This contrasts with the trend until last year, where the number of cases decreased but the seized weight increased, indicating a “larger scale” trend.
The number of cases detected by year was 771 in 2022, 704 in 2023 (a 9% decrease compared to the previous year), and 234 from January to April this year (a 14% increase compared to the previous year). The weight of narcotics seized per case was 624 kg in 2022, 769 kg in 2023 (a 23% increase), and 184 kg from January to April this year (a 13% decrease).
The Customs Service interpreted that strengthened inspections at the border stage influenced the shift in drug smuggling trends. They judged that the enhanced border inspections suppressed incentives for large-scale drug smuggling by international drug crime organizations while also increasing the number of detected cases due to effective crackdowns on small-scale smuggling.
In fact, the Customs Service recognized inspections at the border stage as the most effective measure to block narcotics smuggling and implemented focused crackdowns by route.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, a dedicated drug inspection team was formed to strengthen non-face-to-face smuggling crackdowns via international mail and express shipments. From the endemic phase, anticipating an increase in drug smuggling through travelers, they expanded the introduction of millimeter-wave body scanners to detect narcotics concealed on persons, thereby enhancing the efficiency of inspections.
In the first half of this year, a new customs inspection zone was designated at Incheon International Airport, establishing a comprehensive inspection system for carry-on luggage and persons of passengers on flights from high-risk countries to maximize inspection effectiveness.
Since declaring the war on drugs, the Customs Service has also strengthened crackdowns in drug supply countries through international cooperation. The concept of joint crackdowns has expanded from domestic agencies (police, prosecution, etc.) to local operations in drug supply countries, blocking attempts to smuggle narcotics from the departure stage to Korea in advance.
For example, through this approach, the Customs Service achieved results by intercepting and seizing narcotics before they entered Korea: 49 cases involving 72.2 kg from Thailand (May 2022?June 2023), 10 cases involving 3.7 kg from Vietnam (October?December 2023), and 9 cases involving 1 kg from the Netherlands (September 2023).
Building on this momentum, the Customs Service plans to continuously expand the scope of international cooperation, including domestic joint crackdowns. Especially in the first half of this year, they plan to dispatch local intelligence officers to Thailand and Vietnam, major narcotics supply countries in Southeast Asia, to analyze information and intelligence on local narcotics distribution and enable early detection and joint inspection of suspicious narcotics shipments bound for Korea.
A Customs Service official stated, “The Customs Service will continue to thoroughly block narcotics smuggling from the border stage and faithfully fulfill its role in protecting public health and social safety.”
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