SBS reported that drug smuggling through the international mail has drastically increased this year, and many of the culprits are foreign English teachers residing in Korea.
Entering this year, Korean authorities have made 43 busts involving attempts to smuggle drugs into the country. 27 were through international mail, double last year’s total.
Police believe this is due to the popularity of Internet “black marketing.”
In particular, SBS reported that English teachers who used to smoke pot in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere were driving this illicit trade.
A customs official said three English teachers were busted for drug smuggling in all of last year, but as of May, five had already been nailed for trying to bring controlled substances into Korea. The places of residence of the suspects were spread all over the country.
Heck, a pot head English teacher may even live next to YOU.
SBS said concerns were heightened by the recent influx of unqualified English teachers into Korea.
For some reason, I can’t watch the video on my computer, but judging from the report, you get to see Korean customs officials take down a fleeing Kiwi busted as he was going to pick up a package with pot and hash. You might also get to see North American pot — hopefully from BC — that two American English teachers tried to get mailed to them in coffee and peanut butter jars.
UPDATE:
Yonhap also reported a 33 percent spike in busts for attempted pot imports this year. There were 12 such busts, many of which were English teachers trying to smuggle small amounts — 10 to 150 grams — through the mail.
29 Comments
What’s that in the photo–it looks like quartz crystals with dirt on them…tell customs it’s crystal METH they want to keep out of the country.
Actually, in the Yonhap report, it mentions that while 14 bust this year were for pot — probably English teachers — 15 were for speed. Five were for Ecstacy.
Like Koreans need to be on speed
Man, what evil vices will english teachers visit upon the innocent Korean populace next? First copulation, then intoxication! What’s next, rock and roll?
I assume the bag in the photo is heroin. Too light colored for hash.
I’m an idiot. Those are bags which contained marijuana, they are just covered in peanut butter.
THAT was a fun chase scene
Those are bags which contained marijuana, they are just covered in peanut butter.
I’ll be damned, you’re right. I was wondering what the hell those were.
Hahaha, bags of pot covered with peanut butter! Give that man a prize, while I step out for a new pair of glasses….
SBS Reporter #1: “Should we also include in this story that the majority of the drugs coming into South Korea are from North Korea?”
SBS Editor: “We wouldn’t want to offend our brothers would we?” We also run the risk of President Roh auditing us or something if we put that in the story.”
SBS Reporter: “You’re right.” “What was I thinking?”
Pot and Skippy Peanut Butter? Also placed under arrest is Annette Funicello.
I don’t get it. Can’t these idiots stay clean for a year or two while here? Do they do their homework on the drug laws in Korea before they pull this shit?
Less than 50 busts? Hahahahahahaha.
Never very good with numbers, but they’ve got 43 busts so far this year, 5 of which are English teachers. That’s 11% of the people busted being English teachers. Yet, the English teachers are “driving” the illicit trade.
right.
non korean and steve speak the truth
and what’s up with the “recent influx” of unqualified teachers? There’s been boatloads of them for a loooooong time.
I had a roommate in Pundang who had been teaching in Incheon and he had a drug connection there. Don’t know how or who - whether in house or another expat.
When I first came to Korea in the mid-1990s, actually the first two days I was here, I read an article in the Korea Herald about a foreign teacher who had pot mailed to him. Customs noticed it but let it be delivered. Then the police staked out his house and got photos of him and his Korean girl friend smoking it on three different occasions. Then they moved in on the third occasions. The male was arrested. The female went about her merry way.
My students (all adults 20 - 50 years old) brought the story up as a talking point. Nothing much about that I remember. It wasn’t particularly “those bastards!” oriented, but I did find it interesting that they never considered it noteworthy that the Korean was let go.
Over my years in Korea, I met a fair number of usually younger Koreans, but sometimes people in the early 30s, who had that kind of naive or something drive to learn about the outside world that embraced things like drug use. — people who either talked about going to Canada or the US and using pot or that they wanted to go to these places and try it. Or people who assumed since I was American, I smoked it. Or a few males who wanted to go to California or this area of Canada whose name I don’t remember, because it had a nudist beach. And so on…
To each his own…
These expats know Korean law. They choose to work around it. And sometimes they get caught.
—- I shrug my shoulders —-
Anyway, I think malpaso made a great point that should have been obvious but I missed it……..thank you….
I could also do some defense for the Korean media. I remember regularly seeing drug busts of Koreans on the news. The perp walk — well in Korea, the perp sit — where the cameras glare at the suspects who try to cover their heads with jackets.
It took me a little time to figure out why they kept showing shots of these suspects leaning over running their fingers through their hair while the police held newspapers under their heads.
Then I remembered a good friend of mine, now a right wing captain of industry type, who was a right wing son of a captain of industry type in high school, tell me he would just turn and walk away if the company he was being head-hunted by ever asked him to do a hair folical test as part of their drug screening — since his ultra-conservative ethics had taken a dramatic turn in another direction while in college….
I?€™m an idiot. Those are bags which contained marijuana, they are just covered in peanut butter.You lick the bag clean later on when you get the munchies.
Anyway, taking drugs in Korea is stupid, stupid, stupid. You’re asking for a world of hurt.
The drug laws can be severe here, and for what would be innocuous things back in North America. Usinkorea, the story you cite makes sense because the foreigner guy was the disbributor, a much more serious crime than being a recipient-user. And distribution doesn’t have to involve an exchange of money: giving your buddies a joint makes you a distributor and you could get more serious jail time.
The authorities use a McCarthyistic practice of going easy on you if you name names, so your buddies from BC or OC who are fun to hang with might just finger you if it’s going to get them deported instead of two years in Ch’??nan.
And even if it is not your stuff at all, do NOT let a housemate or a houseguest keep or use drugs there at YOUR home. You can get in trouble for it.
U.S. drug laws are no joke either, plus you get the added extreme violence and anal rape/salad tossing of U.S. prisons. U.S. sentencing guidelines do allow for the death penalty for possesion of certain quantities of marijuana and other drugs, and our mandatory minimums are very high for all drugs. If I had the choice of serving time in a Korean prison or serving time in a U.S. prison I’d pick Korea. No ass-raping and you can still vote and be treated like a normal human when you get out and return to the U.S.
KrZ, in my home state you are likely to end up in drug treatment, not prison. (Not you personally, but you in general).
And for the record, I’m against the death penalty, particularly for drug-trafficking crimes, and I think that we have let too many of our civil liberties be eroded in the name of “The War on Drugs.”
Let’s see, how many wars do we have going on? The War on Terror, the War on Drugs… The War on Poverty is over, isn’t it? (Wouldn’t you know it, those in poverty lost). There’s the War on Smut…
Let’s just collectively call them The War on the Constitution.
According to the SBS website, the two were American. I think that this explains the choice of Skippy’s - an American favorite.
You know, if they had gone with an all-natural peanut butter, such as Sunny Jim’s or Trader Vic’s, those darned dogs might not have caught them up.
Usinkorea wrote:
Or a few males who wanted to go to California or this area of Canada whose name I don?€™t remember, because it had a nudist beach.
That’s the (in)famous Wreck Beach in Vancouver! I think it was once actually named one of the top ten beaches in the world on that ridiculous 80s show Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous, or some such thing.
I fully agree with Kushibo. It is astounding that a visiting foreigner would dare invite this kind of trouble. The Lonely Planet travel guideand every other half-decent one, I would imaginehas a stern warning about this kind of thing in its front matter.
Sorry, I agree with what Steve wrote in comment # 11, and Kushibo backed up a few comments later. If you need an escape from the daily Korean rat race, go for a hike in the pine forests and soak in the atmosphere of a quiet Buddhist temple. You’ll fill your lungs with clean air and tranquilitybetter than any artificially induced state of mind.
I remember I popped out of this 100m crack I had just worked my way up in Korea once, as I got my head over the edge I was confronted by an elderly Korean man, appeared to be 70-80, perched on the ledge happily drinking a bottle of soju. Of course, he then wanted to challenge me to a climbing competition. Even old Korean dudes like to add a little escapism to their escape.
Ah, I forgot about soju. (How could I forget about it!?) Soju works just fine, thank you very much!
And, er, I assume you mean “crack” as in “crevasse”?
…Sorry, “crevice.” Crevice in rock, crevasse in ice, apparently.
Hmmm, are there any English words that don’t also have slang meanings?
“the”
“That’s THE shit” vs. “That’s shit”
Sounds like those damn foreign teachers are perpetrating a crime wave here in SK. Almost 50 busts and 5 are english teachers! This is big news!!
A few years ago I had a student aged 67 and he told me that he remembers that it is still grown in the rural areas of Korea. He also said he saw pot plants in the country and even heard of people smoking it when he was younger. By-the-way, I’d much rather be around a stoned person (especially a Korean aggossi)than a drunk one.