On the 8th, the tariff office announced that it would strengthen maritime smuggling enforcement through selective and concentrated inspections of vessels from high-risk countries.
The day before, the tariff office held the 4th special task force meeting on drug smuggling, chaired by Vice Administrator Lee Myung-koo, at the East Sea Customs.
In this meeting, directors in charge of monitoring and inspecting vessels and maritime cargo at customs ports across the country attended to focus on discussing responses to drug smuggling using vessels and maritime cargo. This meeting was a follow-up to the seizure of 2 tons of cocaine from a vessel that entered the Sokcho Port in Gangwon Province, in collaboration with the Korea Coast Guard, based on intelligence from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (HSI) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on February 2nd.
The tariff office decided to further strengthen enforcement to ensure that not a single case of smuggling is missed, as each case of drug smuggling via sea carries a significant weight. The drug smuggling using vessels and maritime cargo detected by the tariff office amounts to 3 tons (a total of 20 cases) over the past five years, including the 2 tons of cocaine seized last month.
In 2021, the tariff office detected 402.8 kg of methamphetamine from maritime cargo originating in Mexico brought into Busan Port, and 400 kg of cocaine from maritime cargo originating in Peru. Last year, 28.4 kg of cocaine was seized from the lower part of a Canadian vessel that entered the Onsan Port in Ulsan, as well as 33.2 kg of cocaine from maritime cargo entering Busan Port from the United States. Although the number of cases detected by the tariff office over the last five years only accounted for 0.5%, the weight proportion is more than 53.6%.
As a result of this meeting, inspections will be intensified for vessels that have a history of departing from or transiting through high-risk countries. Advanced search equipment, such as remotely operated underwater video cameras (ROVs) capable of searching the hull of a vessel and GPS detectors that can detect signals attached to narcotics, will be introduced. Additionally, the enforcement infrastructure will be expanded by deploying more drug detection dogs at major customs ports.
For maritime cargo, a special narcotics inspection team for maritime cargo will be established at major customs ports such as Busan, Incheon, and Pyeongtaek, and concentrated inspections will be conducted on cargo from high-risk countries. A new type of container scanner with a rear scattering function, effective for reading potential drug concealment, will be gradually introduced starting from Busan Port. The rear scattering function refers to expressing scattered X-rays as images upon colliding with the inspection target, facilitating the detection of low-density organic materials such as narcotics.
The tariff office plans to strengthen cooperation with domestic and international drug enforcement agencies, including customs in major drug-source countries in Southeast Asia and South America, to enhance the acquisition of high-risk information.
Vice Administrator Lee Myung-koo noted, "If large-scale narcotics are brought into the country, they cause serious harm to our society and people, so please do your best to enforce the prevention of drug smuggling via the sea."