‘Drug Party’ at Jinju Entertainment Bar
Targeting Foreign Workers in South Coast Fisheries
Naturalized citizens and foreigners were caught by the Coast Guard for selling and using new types of drugs at an entertainment bar in Jinju, Gyeongnam.
The Tongyeong Coast Guard announced on the 22nd that they arrested four people, including A, a naturalized woman in her 40s from Vietnam who operates the entertainment bar.
They added that three others, including B, a naturalized woman in her 30s from Vietnam who worked as a hostess, were handed over to the prosecution without detention.
The Coast Guard is conducting a search and seizure at an entertainment bar and is removing drugs contained in a zipper bag from the ceiling. [Photo by Tongyeong Coast Guard]
According to the Tongyeong Coast Guard, A and others are suspected of habitually selling and using drugs such as methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), known as "Ecstasy," and ketamine at an entertainment bar in Jinju from September last year to August this year.
A married a Korean man and naturalized, and since 2019, she has operated an entertainment bar targeting foreigners by hiring Vietnamese female hostesses and has been selling and arranging drugs.
When customers booked so-called "drug parties," she prepared separate escape routes and hiding places, closed the entertainment bar, and provided the drugs stored inside the bar and a place to use them.
To prepare for police crackdowns, she hid zipper bags for dividing drugs in the ceiling and constantly monitored the surroundings with the entertainment bar's closed-circuit television (CCTV).
Drugs placed on a table in a karaoke room at a nightlife bar (left) and a customer who has taken the drugs. [Photo by Tongyeong Maritime Police Station, video capture provided]
The drugs sold by A and her group were identified as a new type of drug in pill form, combining ecstasy, which has three times stronger hallucinogenic effects than methamphetamine, and ketamine, an animal anesthetic known as a drug used in sexual crimes.
The Coast Guard stated that they attracted customers by promoting that, although the hallucination and excitement duration is shorter than using individual drugs, the combined drug could produce the effects of both drugs.
The customers were mainly foreigners engaged in fishing along the southern coast, known to be marine workers with physically demanding labor.
A Tongyeong Coast Guard official said, "We are tracking distributors who supplied drugs to A and her group, as well as those involved in manufacturing and smuggling new drugs," adding, "We will do our best to raise awareness among foreign workers residing in Korea about drug crimes and eradicate these crimes."
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