720 Kilos Of Cocaine Worth €220 Million Found On Maltese Ship In Busan
720kg of cocaine, worth ₩360 Billion were found on a cargo ship registered in Malta that entered Busan Port in South Korea. This amount is sufficient for 24 million people to use at a single dose based on the standard 0.03g per dose.
“The international drug trafficking organisations are attempting to target Korea as a new market for cocaine,” said police and customs authorities. “We are no longer free from international drug trafficking organisations.”
This was reported by the Busan Customs Office, and the US Drug Enforcement Administration who helped them seize it, yesterday after finding the cocaine on the Maltese container ship that weighed 95,390 tons on the morning of 10th May. The cocaine aboard the ship comes up to €227.5 million in retail price. The investigators found the cocaine stored inside a container loaded on the ship. Officials associated with the vessel entered through the North port after undergoing an initial investigation.
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Customs and prosecutors are currently conducting further investigations into the origin and distribution route of the drugs. Whether the container carrying the cocaine was intended for domestic import or merely transit is still unclear.
Recently, several ports in Korea, dubbed a “drug-free country,” have been detecting drugs. Earlier, on 2nd April, 2 tons of cocaine were discovered on a bulk carrier weighing 32,000 tons that docked at Okgye Port in Gangwon Province. The estimated value is about 1 trillion won, enough for 67 million people to use simultaneously.
In January 2024, approximately 100kg of cocaine was found in the sea supply system (sea chest) of a 75,000-ton cargo ship registered in Korea that was docked at Busan New Port. In April of last year, 33 kg of cocaine (valued at 165 million won) were also found in a container that arrived from the U.S. at Busan New Port.
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