[Exclusive] Peru-to-Gangneung Drug Route... 2 Hours and 30 Minutes at Sea Reconstructed

Gangneung Okgye Port Cocaine Smuggling Indictment
Routes Shared via Facebook and WhatsApp
56 Sacks of Drugs Hidden in Engine Room Cofferdam
Experts: "Supplier Tracking and Stronger International Cooperation Needed"

Yonhap News Agency

"Meet at midnight. Send us the route coordinates frequently."

The crew members on board the vessel and external drug traffickers used messengers such as WhatsApp and Facebook as their "operational communication network," frequently sharing the planned route and loading plans. Their operation involved secretly smuggling 1.7 tons of cocaine from South America, with an estimated street value of 845 billion won. This unprecedented large-scale smuggling attempt involved hiding the drugs deep inside the vessel's engine room and the crew systematically sharing the route as part of a coordinated "drug operation." However, the attempt was foiled at Okgye Port in Gangneung.

According to the indictment obtained by Representative Joo Jinwoo's office from the People Power Party on June 12, the Gangneung branch of the Chuncheon District Prosecutors' Office indicted two Filipino crew members on May 20, detailing these facts in the indictment. They are accused of directly possessing and transporting the cocaine discovered on the vessel L, which had entered Okgye Port in Gangneung.

According to the indictment, one of the indicted crew members was approached by a colleague, a cook on the vessel L, who offered, "I'll give you 4 million pesos (about 100 million won) if you transport the cocaine." After accepting, he prepared for the smuggling by sharing the route and rendezvous schedule with the traffickers via WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger while on board. As the vessel sailed along its route, he continuously sent schedule information and communicated with the organization in real time. Then, at midnight on February 8, two boats rendezvoused with the vessel about 50 kilometers off the coast of Peru, transferring the cocaine onto the ship. The transfer took about two and a half hours.

When the two boats approached the vessel L, which was floating in the middle of the sea, three crew members carried out their meticulously assigned roles. First, the engineer and deckhand kept watch for the approaching boats and set up a ladder so the traffickers could board. The second engineer of the vessel L had already secured a hiding place for the cocaine and was responsible for storing and managing it.

According to the prosecution, by around 2:30 a.m. that day, 1,690 kilograms of cocaine, packaged in approximately 1-kilogram units, had been divided into 56 sacks and hidden in the vessel's cofferdam (an empty space inside the ship used to prevent oil spills) in the engine room.

Another deckhand, who was indicted along with the deckhand who shared the route, was offered "3 million pesos (about 75 million won)" and joined the conspiracy around March 20 by sending photos of the vessel L's nautical charts to the traffickers. He sent route information to the traffickers on several occasions, and the vessel finally arrived at Okgye Port in Gangneung on April 2.

However, the drugs never made it onto Korean soil. The Coast Guard and the Customs Service, acting on intelligence from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) in the United States, conducted a search the day after the vessel L docked and discovered the cocaine inside the ship, arresting the crew members on site.

Subsequently, prosecutors indicted two additional Filipino crew members for aiding and abetting, in addition to the main perpetrators, and have issued arrest warrants for four conspirators who disembarked from the ship earlier and are currently tracking them down.

The amount of cocaine they attempted to bring in would be enough for 57 million people to use simultaneously. Experts say that punishing only the couriers is not enough to prevent such crimes, and emphasize the need for response systems such as scientific investigations to trace the source and international cooperation systems.

A former narcotics investigator who reviewed the indictment for the Okgye Port case said, "In cases like this, where high rewards are offered to crew members to transport drugs as a sort of 'part-time job,' the organization is so compartmentalized that it is extremely difficult to trace those higher up. Since criminal organizations replace people as disposable assets, punishing only the couriers will not eradicate the problem." Park Seongsu, a professor of police administration at Semyung University, said, "Various investigative techniques should be introduced, such as undercover investigations into narcotics and DNA analysis of suppliers," and added, "It is necessary to shift from simply punishing users to a fundamental response targeting the entire supply chain." Kim Heejun, an attorney at law firm LKB and a former narcotics prosecutor, said, "Since the distribution of drugs now takes place online, such as via Telegram drug chatrooms, the law should be amended to allow for undercover investigations. Only by introducing a system that allows investigators to conceal their identities and observe for extended periods can we uncover the suppliers."