◀ anchor ▶
There was an accident in which a man who was trying to smuggle a large amount of drug bags into his organs and smuggled them into the country died when the drugs exploded inside his body.
There are cases where drugs are brought in by hiding them in the body, but it is said that there is not enough search equipment to discover them.
Correspondent Kim Tae-yoon reported.
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This is an X-ray photo of a man who was caught at Phuket Airport in Thailand last June.
Round-shaped objects are filled throughout the upper body, such as the stomach and chest.
Cocaine.
He was caught trying to swallow 115 bags of cocaine weighing 1.5 kg and put it in his stomach.
Last month, a Korean man in his 50s entered Korea following swallowing more than 200 drug packets, and the drug exploded in his body and died.
This is not the first time a drug has been found hiding inside the body in this way.
According to the Korea Customs Service, 29 cases have been detected since 2011, and 20 of them involved Koreans.
Most of the methamphetamine was methamphetamine, but only regarding 1.4kg of methamphetamine, which was enough for 46,000 people to administer.
In recent years, as the number of overseas travelers has increased once more, the number of detections is also showing signs of increasing.
[전경수 사무관/관세청 국제조사과]
“Bodypacking (hidden inside the body) is actually some kind of smuggling method that has been used a lot in foreign countries and things like that, and it melts inside or leaks out (it might be an accident…)”
In order to catch these ‘bodypackers’ coming into Korea, a full-body scanner that takes X-rays of bones and organs is needed, but it was found that there are only three in the country.
At least three are only at Incheon International Airport, and there are none at the remaining 15 airports and ports across the country.
Recently, at Gimpo Airport, etc., a new screening system that uses high-frequency waves to see through the whole body has been introduced, but it does not have a drug detection function.
Even if a searchable device is introduced, there is a limit that it can only be used with the consent of the person concerned under the current law.
[이웅혁/건국대 경찰학과 교수]
“Since the supply of drugs is much larger, we focus on blocking the supply with the help of information sharing and technology between countries…”
Last year, the number of drug smuggling cases cracked down more than half compared to a year ago, and the number of arrests soared more than seven times.
This is Kim Tae-yoon from MBC News.
Video coverage: Lee Ji-ho / Video editing: Min Kyung-tae / Video source: Incheon International Airport, Thai customs, production company ‘nuctech’
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