"Smuggling Hidden in Stamp-Shaped Drug Book"... Incheon Airport Customs Urgently Arrests American

Seizure of 252 LSD Sheets Worth 25 Million Won
Absorbed on Stamp-Shaped Paper and Sealed in Plastic
Joint Investigation with US Authorities Underway

LSD in the shape of a postage stamp (Photo by Incheon Airport Customs)

An American suspect was urgently arrested and sent to the prosecution after smuggling a new type of drug, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), worth about 25 million won, by making it in the form of stamps and hiding it inside books.

Incheon Airport Customs of the Korea Customs Service announced on the 26th that a U.S. national identified as A was sent to the Incheon District Prosecutors' Office in May. LSD is a new type of drug that causes powerful hallucinations even when taking an extremely small amount of about 100 to 250 micrograms (?g) per dose. To evade customs inspection, A smuggled LSD by sealing it in vinyl after adsorbing it onto small stamp-shaped paper and hiding it inside books.

In early May, Incheon Airport Customs received information from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) that U.S. customs in Memphis had detected 100 sheets of LSD hidden in express cargo that departed from Canada, passed through the U.S., and was headed to South Korea. Subsequently, in cooperation with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), they brought the express cargo into South Korea and monitored the delivery process under the supervision of Incheon Airport Customs investigators until it was delivered to the domestic destination. As a result, the American suspect A, who was receiving the shipment, was urgently arrested on the spot.

Suspect A from the United States used a book to hide stamp-shaped LSD (Photo by Incheon Airport Customs)

Incheon Airport Customs searched A’s residence in Yongsan, Seoul, and seized a mobile phone owned by A as evidence. By analyzing messenger contents on this phone, they uncovered that from January this year, A had smuggled an additional 152.5 sheets of LSD using express cargo from Canada in three separate instances.

An official from Incheon Airport Customs stated, "This case is an example of detecting drugs intended to be brought into the country in advance and arresting the suspect through organic information sharing and rapid investigation with overseas customs authorities and investigative agencies." He added, "We will continue to strengthen international cooperation with overseas customs authorities and do our best in investigating drug-related crimes."