Dogs assigned to drugs help find a record cocaine journey hidden aboard the ship in South Korea in operation helped by the FBI

South Korea discovered and seized two tons of cocaine hidden aboard a ship with a Norwegian flag, authorities told News on Friday, marking the largest drug bust in the country to date.

The Coast Guard of Korea said they had found two tons of what they suspect that it was pure cocaine on a ship with a Norwegian flag that had left Mexico and made stops in Ecuador, Panama and China.

The operation was launched after the South Korean authorities received intelligence from US agencies, the FBI and national security investigations (HSI), that the ship carried hidden narcotics.

The Coast Guard of Korea and the Customs Service of Korea coordinated a large -scale search operation “consisting of a joint search team of 90 officers … along with two dog units assigned to drugs,” said the Coast Guard of Korea.

After the ship docked in a port of the East Coast in South Korea, the team immediately boarded the ship and “discovered a hidden compartment behind the ship’s machine room.”

The drugs were packed in 56 captures, each of which contained between 30 and 40 kilograms (around 66 to 88 pounds) of the drug, the authorities said, which takes the total route to about two tons.

“Preliminary field tests confirmed the substances as suspicion of cocaine,” said the Coast Guard official of Korea to the News.

“The seizure is the largest in history, approximately five times larger than the previous record that was 404 kilograms of methamphetamine,” said an official of the Customs Service of Korea to the News.

The estimated street value is $ 697 million, they added.

The authorities have launched a joint research team to question the captain and crew of the ship about the origin and the planned destination of the drugs, and the route used to transport them.

The researchers also said they are looking for possible ties with international drug trafficking unions and will expand cooperation with FBI and HSI.

South Korea has been classified for a long time among countries with low drug use worldwide, thanks to their strict laws and a strong social stigma.

The operation follows other large cocaine seizures in ships, and in the open seas, worldwide this year. Last week, the Portuguese police said that the officers recently confiscated almost 6.5 tons of cocaine of a semi-summeible ship, or the so-called “drug sub”, the Azores intercepted while linked to the Iberian Peninsula.

In February, Divers in Poland He discovered more than 220 pounds of cocaine at the bottom of the Baltic Sea. That same month, a semi-summeable container loaded with More than 5,000 pounds of cocaine He was intercepted on the Pacific coast of Colombia.

In:
• South Korea
• Cocaine