CHANGWON, South Korea, Sept. 9 (Yonhap) — A district court on Thursday sentenced a South Korean man believed to be the nation’s largest drug supplier to 10 years in prison.
The Changwon District Court in this southeastern city also ordered a forfeiture of 667 million won (US$570,000) from the 26-year-old after convicting him of selling a massive amount of imported illegal drugs across the country via the Telegram messenger.
The man, also known by his Telegram ID “Vatican Kingdom,” was charged with selling 640 grams of methamphetamine, 6,364 ecstasy pills, 3,560 grams of ketamine, 39 LSD blotter papers, 280 ml of synthetic cannabis and 90 grams of cannabis from April 12 to December 10 of last year.
He reportedly imported those banned substances from a global drug supplier via international courier services for online advertising and sales here through Telegram.
“Vatican Kingdom” was arrested in January this year, along with a number of accomplices involved in domestic sales and distribution networks and drug buyers.
They received deposits from buyers in virtual currency and used the so-called throwing method, in which drugs are left in a specific place.
“The defendant systematically traded drugs through SNS-based bold technique, which was difficult to detect, during a period of only eight months. He needs to take strict responsibility for his acts as drugs worth several hundreds of millions of won were distributed nationwide,” said the court.
