Up until now, there has never been a mention of darknet vendors being arrested in South Korea. That is not entirely surprising, as local law enforcement never had an ongoing investigation into domestic illegal activity on the deep web. That situation has changed, however, as a 27-year-old man was arrested by South Korean authorities for drug trafficking earlier this week.
Even South Korea Deal With Darknet Problems
The story of this 27-year-old male is not new by any means. He saw the deep web as an opportunity to purchase drugs and other narcotics at reasonable prices and hoped to remain anonymous while doing so. Once the goods were in his possession, he would then sell them to international students studying in South Korea.
Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency’s officials claim this is the country’s first deep web investigation. Or to be more precise, it is the first time somebody is caught in the act of a deep web-related drug offense. This once again goes to show crime can happen in any country, and the darknet remains a primary source of this type of activity.
The distribution of these illegal substances in South Korea may go back as far as August of 2015. At that time, the male suspect was actively purchasing drugs from the darknet with the intent of distribution. However, he quickly started his own side business, by growing marijuana at one of the premises he rented. Cultivation these plans is not an easy task, but he allegedly found the necessary guidelines on the deep web as well.
According to law enforcement officials, the vendor made roughly US$17,600 by selling weed packs. Not the most spectacular amount by any means, but it’s still worth taking into consideration. Together with the drug dealer, another 79 people were arrested by the Metropolitan Police in recent weeks. The majority of these arrests are all customers of the drug dealer, who mainly distributed narcotics to international students.
Even though South Korea, as well as other Asian countries, do not have strict drug laws, it’s difficult to predict what will happen to this man. While law enforcement officials know how the dark net operates, it remains unsure what type of jail sentence will be handed out. At the same time, South Korea does take criminal offenses very seriously, regardless of how they took place.
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