“I never expected to detect drugs so often before I came here.”
Cho Joo-seong, a seasoned Korea Customs Service (KCS) officer, said as he explained his counter-narcotics mission at Incheon International Airport in a phone interview with The Korea Times.
Since spring 2023, Cho, 49, has been leading a 13-member team tasked with finding drugs hidden in express mail and cargo from abroad.
The volume of international mail and cargo that KCS Incheon International Airport Regional Customs handles surpasses that of other KCS offices, as the airport is the country’s main gateway.
And Cho’s team has been preventing attempts to smuggle drugs “several times every month.”
Such frequency, according to Cho, was “unthinkable” in the early years of his career in the 2000s when he was assigned to customs declarations for passengers coming from abroad.
Accordingly, he agreed with a widely accepted view that Korea is no longer a drug-free country in the middle of a surging number of criminals convicted of drug offenses.
“Nevertheless, I believe that Korea can get its drug-free country status back, as my team is deeply committed to its frontline mission in countering drug smuggling attempts,” Cho said.
“We wish to thwart every single drug attempt and make sure that there will not be even a single drug offender while we work as a team.”
Cho’s comment came as Korea no longer prides itself as a drug-free country, which refers to one that has fewer than 20 criminals convicted of drug offenses per 100,000 nationals.
The number of drug offenders hit a record-high 27,611 in 2023, marking a 50.1 percent increase from 18,395 a year earlier, according to the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office.
The data suggests that 35 out of every 100,000 Korean nationals are drug offenders.
What is more serious about drug trafficking is that narcotics are more accessible nationwide and that even minors are being increasingly caught for drug-related offenses.
A total of 1,477 people out of the 27,611 offenders were teenagers. The number has been increasing consistently from 239 in 2019 to 313 in 2020, 450 in 2021 and 481 in 2022.
Under the circumstances, President Yoon Suk Yeol declared a “war on drugs” and the government has been on a nationwide crackdown against drugs.
“As a father with children, it is heartbreaking when I watch news about young people getting addicted to drugs,” Cho said.
“At the same time, the news reminds me of a sense of duty as a customs officer and motivates me to serve the job faithfully for the children to live in a brighter future.”
His team detects drugs using analytical data collected within and outside Korea and up-to-date scanning devices.
But smugglers are also getting more sophisticated and sneakier in their attempt to bring in drugs.
“For example, they would hide drugs in soap bars, in pipes, in vacuum cleaners and every other available space found in goods that we see in everyday life,” Cho said.
“People would not suspect these goods in relation to drug smuggling, but for us, we make sure to pay extra attention.”