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.
