Cold Medicine Turned Into Meth in Vacant Apartment

[Anchor]

A gang has been arrested for manufacturing methamphetamine using cold medicine, enough for 40,000 people to use. An oriental medical pharmacist who sold them the cold medicine was also part of the plot.

Reported by Jeong Jiyeon.

[Reporter]

An apartment complex vacant due to a lien dispute.

Entering the home, gas masks and flasks are scattered everywhere, and one side of the room is piled with bags full of medicine bottles.

These are common cold medicines easily available on the market.

[Police: It smells here. This is it, right here.]

The ringleader, known as A, and four others were caught by the police after manufacturing large quantities of methamphetamine in the apartment from April of last year to June of this year.

[Hwang In-gi, Head of Narcotics Crime Investigation Division 2, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: (The gang) monitored and controlled the entry of outsiders using CCTV and parking barriers.]

The methamphetamine confiscated by the police alone amounted to 1.36 kg, valued at 4.2 billion won.

It was an amount that 40,000 people could take simultaneously, and it was revealed to have been manufactured using regular cold medicine.

These are cold medicines purchased directly from pharmacies.

They contain pseudoephedrine, an ingredient that relieves nasal congestion, which was extracted and used to manufacture methamphetamine.

It was revealed that they referred to overseas research papers, scientific experiment videos, and even rulings of similar crimes to manufacture methamphetamine using cold medicine.

The main ingredient, cold medicine, was provided by an oriental medical pharmacist. Investigations showed that this pharmacist sold a whopping 10,000 bottles, or about 630,000 tablets, of cold medicine to them while knowing it would be used to manufacture methamphetamine.

The police apprehended 13 members of the gang, including drug manufacturing offenders and the oriental medical pharmacist, and detained four of them, including ringleader A, before forwarding them to the Prosecutors Office.

The police also stated that they have officially requested the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to designate cold medicines containing the ingredient as prescription-only drugs to prevent them from being easily used in crimes.

(Video reporting: Yang Ji-hoon, Video editing: Lee So-young, Footage provided by: Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency)

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