Two North Korean diplomats have been busted for drug smuggling in — of all places — Turkey:
Two North Korean diplomats have been detained by Turkish authorities on charges of drug smuggling, the Associated Press reported yesterday from Istanbul.
The North Korean diplomats, based on Bulgaria, were arrested after a raid on Sunday in Istanbul, according to Turkish police. The diplomats were suspected of smuggling hundreds of thousands of narcotic pills into the country.
The North Koreans are accused of smuggling fenethylline, a synthetic drug more commonly known as Captagon, from Bulgaria, a police source was quoted by AP. They were attempting to deliver the drugs to two Turks who were also arrested.
According to the AP report, a photo of their confiscated car appeared in yesterday’s edition of the Turkish newspaper, Milliyet. The car reportedly had diplomatic license plates.
Turkish authorities reportedly investigated the case for six months.It remains unclear how Turkey will deal with the North Koreans. Turkey has diplomatic relations with the North, but there is no North Korean embassy in Istanbul.
Being diplomats and all, I gather they won’t be biting off fellow inmates’ tongues inside a Turkish prison.
4 Comments
they deserve the Midnight Express treatment so they get to see how the government they represent treats their countrymen.
I wonder if they are entitled to diplomatic immunity if they were apprehended in a jurisdiction outside the one to which they were accredited as diplomats. I’d like to think not, so that they get the “full cleveland” or, in this case perhaps, the “full Berk Sener” [look it up under Turkish names].
I stumbled upon this webpage while googling on koreans in Istanbul:)! and i came up with this article…I should say I feel unhappy about it.
As a university student from Istanbul (and one learning korean by himself) I feel that the comments made are quite biased…I don’t think it’s a good way to compare turkish prisons with what was in a tv show which is based upon fiction and maybe even lack of knowledge..
Guess you haven’t heard what American prison is like? Try watching some episode of OZ. *shudder*