SEOUL: The care packages looked innocent enough, filled with cereal boxes and cookies for soldiers far from home. But a closer inspection revealed crystal methamphetamine worth millions of dollars hidden inside.
Four soldiers — two from Camp Humphreys and two from Camp Stanley — have been accused in separate cases of using the Military Postal Service Agency to try to smuggle illegal drugs to South Korea for sale by a third party.
South Korean prosecutors are investigating the possibility that both cases were linked to a smuggling ring involving a Korean-American man the soldiers called Jason.
The MPSA allows American soldiers, civilian government employees and their families to send and receive mail via the U.S. Postal Service even when they’re overseas.
Efforts to use it to smuggle drugs and other illicit items are not new. But the confiscation of nearly 20 pounds of methamphetamine marked a record haul for the Korea Customs Service last year – more than 2011 through 2015 combined, according to statistics obtained by Stars and Stripes.
