SEOUL: The amount of drugs smuggled into South Korea through the country’s main gateway, Incheon International Airport, in the first half of this year has reached a record-high, customs officials said Tuesday.
As many as 146 drug trafficking attempts have been caught between January and June 22, 2015, the highest level since the airport opened in 2001, according to the Incheon Airport Customs officials.
The amount of the seized narcotics, weighing 3,666 kilograms, are valued at over 25.6 billion won (US$23.1 million) in the local market, they said.
“The customs officials catch an average of about 30 kilograms of narcotics annually. The jump in the first half of this year is attributed to the one case in February when more than 3,000 kilograms of vegetable narcotics (khat, an amphetamine-like drug) were caught,” said Pyo Dong-sam, a senior customs official.
A total of 83 cases of smuggling attempts were made through international mail in the same period, followed by 47 cases through express cargo, the officials said.
“Airport customs officials will try their best to clamp down on attempts of illegal smuggling of the drugs in light of the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking,” Incheon Airport Customs said in a statement.
The U.N. designated June 26 as an expression of its determination to strengthen action and cooperation to achieve the goal of an international society free of drug abuse.
