By Bae Ji-sook
Staff Reporter

A Japanese gangster and two Korean accomplices were apprehended and indicted Monday for having allegedly smuggled a large amount of philopon into the country.

The Busan District Prosecutors' Office said this is the first time a yakuza member was detained for such a crime. The case underlines that Korea has become one of the main consumer nations for the drug.

An unidentified 53-year-old Japanese national was indicted for attempting to sell 1,021 grams of philopon, together with his Korean partners, identified as a Park and a Lee. They attempted to sell the drugs to some Korean traffickers at a hotel in Seoul last month.

The drugs, worth 3 billion won ($2.1 million), are equivalent to 30,000 doses, according to the prosecution. The offenders managed to pack the drugs in four plastic bags and were ready to send illegal gains to Japanese yakuza leaders, prosecutors said.

They said the gangsters were organized. Park and Lee were fluent in both Korean and Japanese, had worked for yakuza before and were working as dealers of imported cars in Korea. The arrested yakuza member has worked for Yamaguchi-gumi, one of the largest crime rings in Japan for 14 years.

``For a very long time, criminals used to send drugs from China or other countries to Korea to send them back to Japan. However, the case shows that Korea has now become a consumption destination,'' a prosecutor said.

Investigators are tracking down how the criminals managed to smuggle such a large amount of drugs into Korea.

bjs@koreatimes.co.kr