Foreign National Arrested and Sentenced for Manufacturing and Distributing 'Rush', a Club Drug

Smuggling Raw Materials from Vietnam, Then Manufacturing and Selling Domestically

A man in his 20s, a foreign national, was arrested by the police for secretly importing the raw materials of "Rush," known as a "club drug" overseas, into South Korea and manufacturing and selling it.

The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced on the 5th that they arrested a 24-year-old male, Mr. A, a national of the Dominican Republic, on the 27th of last month on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act and subsequently sent him to detention.
[Photo by Gangnam Police Station, Seoul]

The Gangnam Police Station in Seoul announced on the 5th that they had arrested Mr. A (24), a Dominican Republic national, and sent him to prosecution on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.

According to the police, Mr. A is suspected of smuggling the raw materials of Rush from Vietnam since September last year to manufacture and distribute the drug.

It was investigated that Mr. A disguised the raw materials in glass bottles as cosmetics and smuggled them through Incheon International Airport, then manufactured Rush at a workshop located in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul. Rush, which contains alkyl nitrites used as vasodilators, is a new type of drug used in clubs. Due to concerns about side effects such as oxygen deficiency and nerve damage, it was designated as a temporary Schedule 2 narcotic in South Korea in May 2020.

Police investigations revealed that Mr. A, who mainly traveled between Vietnam and South Korea as a luxury reseller, started manufacturing and selling Rush at high prices to make money after luxury sales declined due to the economic downturn.

The amount of Rush manufactured by Mr. A reached 4 liters, and the police seized 114 bottles (3.42 liters) of Rush that had not been distributed in the market. Additionally, the police recently arrested distributors Mr. B (33) and Mr. C (35), who sold the Rush manufactured by Mr. A domestically.

The police plan to continue tracking down the middle distributors who have not yet been caught and will make every effort to recover the criminal proceeds.

A police official explained, "It is a very rare case in South Korea that raw materials of Rush were smuggled in from overseas and manufactured and distributed in large quantities domestically."