[Anchor]
Prosecutors have indicted a yakuza member accused of smuggling 636 kg (about 1,402 lb) of marijuana into South Korea.
Authorities estimate the seized amount could allow roughly 1.27 million people to smoke at once.
It is the largest shipment ever imported for domestic distribution in the country.
Reporter Seung-taek Seo reports.
[Reporter]
A container that arrived at Incheon Port was tightly sealed.
Officials forced the container open and found dozens of large boxes packed inside.
Inside were 636 kg (about 1,402 lb) of marijuana that a Japan-based yakuza member of Korean descent attempted to smuggle into South Korea.
That amount would be enough for roughly 1.27 million people to smoke at once, making it the largest quantity ever imported for domestic distribution.
The government's Joint Drug Investigation Headquarters has arrested and indicted a suspect identified only as A, a member of the Japanese yakuza group 'Kudokai,' on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act.
Investigators say A loaded the marijuana into a shipping container aboard a vessel at Thailand's Laem Chabang port in March and sent it to Incheon Port.
They say he conspired with a drug-trafficking network based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
After smuggling the marijuana into Korea, investigators found he planned to distribute part of it through local trafficking networks and to re-export some back to the Japanese yakuza.
He used cryptocurrency to pay for the drugs to evade law enforcement tracking and vacuum-sealed the packages multiple times to remove odors and reduce bulk, investigators say.
The Joint Drug Investigation Headquarters has identified four Vietnamese suspects who sold him the drugs, has sought arrest warrants for them, and plans to request Interpol red notices.
Seung-taek Seo, Yonhap News TV.
[Video editing: Yun Hyun-jung]
[Footage provided by: Joint Drug Investigation Headquarters]
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Seung-taek Seo (taxi226@yna.co.kr)
