South Korean Police Arrest 312 in Crypto-powered Drug Trading Busts
South Korean police are stepping up their crackdown on crypto-powered drug trafficking, and have made 312 arrests in a wide-sweeping narcotics bust.
The broadcaster KBS reported that the arrests were carried out by the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s Drug Crime Investigation.
The suspects were charged with violating the Narcotics Control Act.
Police said the suspects were thought to have bought or sold drugs using dark web portals.
They are thought to have made use of “non-domestic” chat apps like Telegram, and conducted trades using cryptoassets such as Bitcoin (BTC).
And police said that the group contained at least six alleged “large-scale” drug dealers.
This group included a man in his 20s who also ran an “internet shopping mall.”
The suspected dealers are thought to have smuggled drugs into the country from overseas or bought from South Korean smugglers.
Officers claimed the suspected dealers had been active from December 2020 to March 2023.
The “internet shopping mall” operator, police think, appears to have been a key player, and allegedly expanded his operations from selling conventional goods to trading drugs on the dark web.
Other individuals were charged with offenses that involved growing marijuana at home and then selling it online or to “neighbors.”
Police said that only one of the six suspected “major” sellers had previous drug-related convictions.
Officers said most of the traffickers had used “dead drop” methods to distribute and buy narcotics.
Buyers allegedly paid upfront using BTC and altcoins, while dealers later left bags of drugs hidden in public places, such as apartment entrances.
The dealers then contacted buyers via Telegram to tell them where to pick up the drugs once they had left the area.
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