A white-haired man in his 80s accused of using a deep-sea fishing vessel to transport 4.8 trillion won ($3.3 billion) worth of narcotics, including cocaine, in international waters off South America has been repatriated to South Korea after 22 years on the run. The man was seated in a wheelchair when he arrived.
The Korean National Police Agency said on the 26th that it worked with the Busan Coast Guard Station to bring the man, identified only as A, back to South Korea on the 20th after Ghanaian authorities completed deportation procedures.
A is suspected of boarding a deep-sea fishing vessel as the officer in charge of management and supervision between 2002 and 2004, transporting narcotics for a drug trafficking ring on five occasions in international waters off South America and collecting transport fees in return. Police said the narcotics are believed to have been cocaine, totaling 5,385 kilograms with an estimated street value of about 4.8 trillion won.
A fled to Ghana around 2004 to evade investigators after accomplices who had sailed with him on the vessel were prosecuted, and had been living there as an undocumented resident, police said.
The Busan Coast Guard Station continued its pursuit, including a request for an Interpol red notice, while the national police agency shared intelligence with Ghanaian police to track A's whereabouts. Local police later arrested A on charges of illegal residence with assistance from the South Korean Embassy in Ghana.
Now that it has custody of A, the Busan Coast Guard Station plans to investigate the specifics of the drug transport operation, the payments he received and his ties to the trafficking ring.
The national police agency and the Korea Coast Guard said the repatriation was "an achievement made possible by close cooperation between the two agencies, the embassy on the ground and the relevant Ghanaian authorities," adding that they would "continue to track down and respond firmly to suspects in serious maritime crimes who have fled overseas."
Separately, the National Office of Investigation said 174 people were arrested for drug manufacturing and smuggling between January and August this year, up 33.8% from a year earlier. Arrests of dealers rose 6.6% over the same period, part of a broader increase in distribution-related arrests.
Arrests involving medical narcotics totaled 706, up 11.9% from a year earlier. Total drug-related arrests came to 9,530, a 5.3% increase over the same period.