▲ The clinic in Cheongdam-dong used as a site for illegal propofol administration.
A doctor has been arrested for illegally administering medical narcotics such as propofol at 30 times the wholesale price and clandestinely filming patients while they were asleep.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Narcotics Crime Investigation Unit announced today (July 26) that it has referred a total of 14 individuals—including two doctors, an administrative chief, and patients—to prosecutors on charges including violations of the Narcotics Control Act.
The arrested doctor in his 40s, surnamed A, is accused of illegally administering propofol and other substances under the guise of cosmetic procedures at a clinic in Cheongdam-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, making 40 million won in the process.
He is also accused of illegally filming the bodies of unconscious patients under the influence of drugs on 27 occasions.
Doctor B, a 50-year-old business partner, was also found to have pocketed more than 400 million won in illicit profits through habitual illegal administration.
The cost set for a single administration was 350,000 won, which is more than 30 times the wholesale price of the drug.
Some addicts charged up to 13.5 million won in a single day, or visited 64 times over 11 months to squander 253 million won, and even stayed at the clinic for 13 hours while intoxicated by the drugs.
It was revealed that the two doctors also used a method of mixing dexmedetomidine, a general sleep anesthetic, with narcotics to evade crackdown and keep patients in a sleep state for longer periods.
This is the first time the drug has been caught being misused and abused as a substitute for narcotics.
Police explained that this drug has virtually the same active ingredient as medetomidine, a veterinary anesthetic that was recently detected as a new type of drug, prompting calls for its designation as a controlled substance.
Police have requested health authorities to designate the drug as a controlled substance and applied for a preservative seizure of approximately 450 million won in criminal proceeds belonging to the two doctors.
However, police concluded that although the two doctors were business partners, they used different floors and were not close, determining they were not accomplices. Therefore, Doctor B was referred without detention.
Police pointed out that this case is a serious crime that exploited closed single-person rooms.
They emphasized, "During sleep anesthesia, it is necessary to restrict medical personnel from operating alone and to make guardian systems mandatory, ensuring a third party is always present."
(Photo provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Yonhap News)
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