A ring that manufactured billions of won worth of philopon (methamphetamine) using over-the-counter cold medicines has been arrested by police.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Narcotics Investigation Unit apprehended 13 individuals on charges of violating the Narcotics Control Act and the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act, and forwarded all of them to prosecutors, including four who were detained.
They are accused of manufacturing 1.36 kg of philopon using cold medicines at an apartment in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province, from April of last year to June of this year.
The haul is valued at 4.2 billion won, an amount sufficient for 40,000 people to take simultaneously.
More than 10,000 packs of cold medicine were sold to them.
A herbalist and pharmacy officials who sold the cold medicines were also caught on charges of aiding or abetting the crime.
In particular, one herbalist was investigated for handing over cold medicines six times in the parking lot of their apartment.
The ringleader, surnamed A, had previously been imprisoned in 2021 for manufacturing philopon using cold medicine, and it was revealed that after release, A even dragged in prison inmates met behind bars to resume manufacturing drugs.
They turned an apartment that had been vacant for years into a drug manufacturing facility and produced philopon by referencing overseas research papers and scientific experiment videos.
They even showed meticulousness by controlling outsiders' access using CCTVs and parking barriers.
In particular, they extracted a specific ingredient contained in cold medicine to make philopon, a method that also appears in the U.S. television series "Breaking Bad," where drugs are manufactured using cold medicine.
Police stated that the manufactured philopon was confiscated in its entirety before being distributed to the market.
They added that they requested the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to convert the relevant pharmaceutical product into a prescription-only drug to prevent cold medicine from being misused for drug manufacturing.
Reported by Choi Jae-yeong | Video by Kim Na-on | Graphics by Yang Hye-min | Produced by SBS Digital News
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