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| A Seoul Metropolitan Police official official puts seized drugs in order at the office's parking lot in this file photo taken in October 2018. Korea Times file |
By Lee Hae-rin
The number of drug offenders aged 30 or under has increased threefold in five years, as Korea's arrests for narcotic crimes hit an all-time high last year, according to the latest police report.
The number of foreign nationals arrested for illegally possessing, trafficking and selling drugs also tripled, mainly from large groups of people doing drugs at industrial complexes.
The Korean National Police Agency's Detective Bureau at the National Office of Investigation announced Sunday that 5,702 people were arrested during the police's special control on drug crimes, from August to December last year.
A total of 12,387 people were arrested for drug-related crimes last year ― a record high, and a 16.6 percent raise from the previous year's 10,626.
The increase was visible, especially among the younger people who are digitally competent with the internet, smartphones and social media.
About one out of three, or 4,203 drug offenders arrested last year was in their 20s. The figure is a three-fold jump from 1,392 in 2018, and a 19.8-percent increase from the previous year's 3,507. Teenage drug offenders also tripled. Last year 294 people were arrested, which is a near-threefold increase from 2018's 104 people. Some of the offenders are as young as 14, the police said.
Last year, the number of drug offenders who were arrested for trafficking drugs via the internet and social media during the police's five-month operation was 1,495, which is a 39.5-percent increase from the same period of the previous year. The number of offenders using the dark web and cryptocurrency for drug sales increased by 19 percent.
The number of arrested drug offenders of foreign nationality also surged, almost threefold from 596 in 2018 to 1,757, in 2022. The figure is a five-percent increase from the previous year's 1,673 and accounts 14.2 percent of the total drug-related arrests of 2022.
Several cases of people taking drugs in a group among foreign worker communities at industrial complexes have been detected and contributed to the increase in narcotic crimes, the police said.
In response, the government plans to introduce several measures to reduce drug crime.
The police plan to continue the intensive control of drug crime throughout this year. It will also operate and develop investigation teams specialized in the dark web, cryptocurrency and cyber drug trafficking, to tackle such crimes.
Also, the Ministry of Justice plans to expand drug-related education for minors in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family to tackle drug the epidemic. The ministry will also provide drug addiction prevention programs and enforce drug use supervision at youth detention centers.
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