00:00 Intro
00:32 A Methamphetamine Lab Set Up in an Apartment
01:38 Replacing Technicians After Manufacturing Failures
03:00 Who Supplied 630,000 Cold Medicine Pills?
04:23 630,000 Cold Medicine Pills Flowed to a Single Location... Why Weren't They Blocked?
This cold medicine, commonly purchased at pharmacies, contains ingredients used to relieve nasal congestion. However, this ordinary-looking cold medicine was used to manufacture methamphetamine. And it was not just one or two packs, but a staggering 10,610 packs, amounting to about 630,000 pills. The methamphetamine produced using these cold pills weighed at least 1.36 kilograms, an amount that can be simultaneously administered to 40,000 people. Who on earth, where, and how did this happen?
1. A Methamphetamine Lab Set Up in an Apartment
The footage you are watching now is an apartment complex in Pyeongtaek, Gyeonggi Province. With piles of garbage and construction waste scattered around, it almost looks like a ruin. In fact, this place was vacant due to a dispute over retention rights and was rarely visited by people. The gang chose precisely this kind of place as the location for manufacturing methamphetamine. Stepping inside reveals a scene completely different from an ordinary residential space. Protective gear, gas masks, flasks, and various experimental equipment are scattered about, and a pile of bags filled with medicine bottles is stacked in one corner. All the windows are wide open because of the pungent odor generated during the production of methamphetamine. The police explained that ringleader A, one of the gang members, worked as an apartment manager for about two years and used this to commit the crime.
[Hwang In-gi, Head of Narcotics Investigation Division 2, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: (The gang) selected an apartment with few people around as the crime scene, and used CCTVs, parking barriers, and other means to monitor and control the access of outsiders.]
The gang prepared more than just a manufacturing site. They even set up a separate warehouse in Paju, Gyeonggi Province, to store manufacturing equipment and hazardous substances.
2. Replacing Technicians After Manufacturing Failures
They were not able to make methamphetamine from the beginning. According to the investigation results, they began preparing for the crime in April of last year. They repeated test production for several months. A attempted to manufacture it through a technician he met while serving time in prison for a past drug offense. However, after repeated failures in production, they eventually looked for someone else. They even studied manufacturing methods by searching for overseas research papers published on the internet, scientific experiment videos, and even rulings of similar crimes. This was not simply a crime committed on the spur of the moment, but a thoroughly prepared act involving changing people and searching for data to succeed in manufacturing. Following these preparations, full-scale production began in October of last year and continued for about 8 months. As a result, the methamphetamine seized by the police amounted to 1.36 kilograms, worth about 4.2 billion won at market price.
[Hwang In-gi, Head of Narcotics Investigation Division 2, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: There have been occasional cases of manufacturing methamphetamine using cold medicine in the past. In most cases, when using cold medicine for production, the process was so difficult that they either failed or, even if they started the manufacturing stage, it resulted in the production of a very small amount. However, in this case, the suspects committed the crime over a long period of time and succeeded in mass-producing more than 1 kg of methamphetamine.]
3. Who Supplied 630,000 Cold Medicine Pills?
The ingredient used to manufacture methamphetamine is "pseudoephedrine," which is contained in cold medicine. Originally a component that relieves nasal congestion, it was illegally extracted and mixed and processed with chemical substances such as sulfuric acid and hydrochloric acid to manufacture methamphetamine. Then, where on earth did they obtain such a massive amount of this cold medicine? It was from a herb doctor. According to police investigations, herb doctor B sold a total of about 10,000 packs of cold medicine in 6 instances from January to June, knowing that the gang was making methamphetamine. Calculated in pills, this amounts to a whopping 636,600 tablets. The transaction location was also unusual. Instead of a pharmacy, they were sometimes sold in the parking lot of the apartment where B resided. The police stated that B earned 95 million won in criminal proceeds from the sale of this cold medicine, and fully recovered this money through pre-indictment preservation. As mentioned earlier, chemical substances were also used in the manufacture of methamphetamine, and the chemical suppliers who supplied them are also suspected of failing to properly record transaction details in management ledgers. The total number of suspects arrested by the police in this case is 13. It includes not only those who participated in manufacturing, but also related parties who supplied or sold raw materials.
4. 630,000 Cold Medicine Pills Flowed to a Single Location... Why Weren't They Blocked?
This case raises a question: Why wasn't it possible to prevent 630,000 cold medicine pills from flowing into a single place?
[Jang Bo-hyun, Policy Director, Korean Pharmaceutical Association: No one raised an issue with a single pharmacy ordering and selling this much. There is currently nothing in place institutionally to flag or catch a problem just because a specific medicine goes in large quantities to a particular pharmacy.]
The cold medicine containing pseudoephedrine in question is an over-the-counter drug that can be purchased without a doctor's prescription. However, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety has already implemented management measures, such as limiting sales volume and checking the purpose of purchase, considering the possibility that this ingredient could be abused for drug manufacturing. Nevertheless, experts point out that there is a lack of monitoring to filter out abnormal signs, such as how much a specific pharmaceutical product is supplied to a specific pharmacy.
[Jang Bo-hyun, Policy Director, Korean Pharmaceutical Association: Looking at wholesale supply information and investigating cases where medicines that can be used to manufacture narcotics, such as pseudoephedrine, are supplied in noticeably large quantities to a specific pharmacy seems to be a realistic alternative at this point.]
(Photo: Yonhap News)
Reported by Jung Jiyeon | Produced by SBS Digital News
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