Less drug offenders but more confiscation

The number of drug offenders in Korea decreased last year but the amount of illegal drugs confiscated by authorities increased greatly, a recent report showed.

“Drug Crimes in 2011” released by the Supreme Prosecutors’ Office on Sunday show that the number of drug offenders decreased 5.7 percent to 9,174 last year. The numbers, which had remained above 10,000 from 2007 to 2009 started to fall in 2010, down to 9,732 and to 9,174 in 2011.

Of the offenders however, those smuggling drugs increased by 7.4 percent to 2,179 last year from 2,028 in 2010.

The number of foreign drug offenders dropped by 65.6 percent to 295 from 27 countries in 2011 from 858 people from 31 nations in 2010.

Due to the rise in drug trafficking, more drugs were confiscated. Last year, the amount nearly doubled to 109.8 kilograms from 57 kilograms the previous year.

As for users, the number of offenders taking methamphetamine increased by 6.7 percent but those using opium and marijuana decreased by 32.5 percent and 35.3 percent respectively.

According to the prosecution, methamphetamine was mostly smuggled into the country from China, Mali and Nigeria. <The Korea Times/Yun Suh-young>

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