Korea’s customs authorities and Coast Guard have seized approximately 2 tons of smuggled cocaine on a foreign vessel docked on the country’s east coast, officials said Thursday.
At around 6:30 a.m. Wednesday, the Donghae regional office of the Coast Guard and the Seoul Regional Customs deployed around 90 personnel to search the ship docked at a port in Gangneung, Gangwon after receiving a tip-off from the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).
The FBI had warned that a 32,000-ton carrier suspected of carrying drugs was entering Korean waters on the day, according to the officials.
The Norwegian-flagged vessel is believed to have departed from Mexico and traveled through Ecuador, Panama and China before arriving in Korea.
Authorities discovered 57 boxes containing packages with about 1 kilogram of cocaine each, totaling 2 tons, hidden aboard the ship.
The seized drugs have an estimated market value of 1 trillion won ($679.6 million), equivalent to around 67 million doses.
According to the Korea Customs Service, this marks the country’s largest-ever drug bust in terms of weight.
Authorities said they are investigating the ship’s captain and crew to determine the origin and destination of the drugs. They also plan to expand the investigation into possible links to an international drug trafficking organization in cooperation with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).
