South Korean man arrested in Pattaya for transnational drug trafficking

Police yesterday arrested a South Korean man in Pattaya for transnational drug trafficking after finding him smuggling drugs from Thailand to South Korea.

The South Korean drug control division recently arrested Thai and South Korean drug smugglers at Incheon International Airport in Seoul, seizing 600 grammes of ketamine during the process.

The suspects confessed that they had smuggled drugs into the country five times before, and the South Korean man in Thailand, Jintae, planned the smuggling and stocked the drugs for the gang.

The International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) subsequently issued an arrest warrant for Jintae and coordinated with the Thai police to locate him, eventually tracking him down in Pattaya. The Chon Buri Provincial Immigration Office then assumed responsibility for monitoring Jintae.

According to the police, Jintae had transferred a recent batch of drugs to his gang just before his arrest at a hotel in northern Pattaya. The police tracked him to a restaurant on Pattaya Sai Sam Road yesterday, July 31, where he was apprehended.

Jintae confessed to his involvement in international drug trafficking, admitting that he had purchased drugs from a Thai dealer named Frio, who had recently committed suicide following a domestic dispute.

The police also discovered that Jintae had overstayed his visa. Consequently, he will face penalties for this infraction before being extradited to South Korea for further legal action concerning the drug case.

In a related report, Thai Immigration Bureau officers are now searching for a South Korean woman, Hwang Hana, who is wanted for allegedly being involved in drug trafficking and the Burning Sun case, which involved prostitution, human trafficking, and bribery.

According to Interpol, Hwang Hana is hiding in Thailand, having arrived in the country via Don Mueang International Airport from Vietnam on 13 March. Police have not yet provided an update on the case.

Another arrest of South Korean nationals was reported in June when immigration police arrested two South Korean men for illegally working as tour guides in the northern province of Chiang Mai.