Locking Doors and Sedating Women: The 'Shocking Method' That Racked Up 450 Million Won

Police officers enter a hospital in Cheongdam-dong, Seoul, present a search and seizure warrant, and thoroughly search everything from the trunk of the doctor's car to the inside of the doors.

Fourteen people, including doctors, an administrative chief, and patients at the hospital, have been arrested by police on charges of illegally administering medical narcotics.

Two arrested doctors are accused of illegally administering medical narcotics such as propofol and ketamine 182 times over a two-year period starting in 2021.

It was found that they prescribed these drugs to visitors under the guise of cosmetic procedures at prices reaching about 32 times the cost.

The illegal administrations mainly took place in single rooms late at night after hospital hours or on days when the hospital was closed. It was also revealed that one of the arrested doctors illegally filmed a patient who had fallen asleep under the influence of drugs 27 times, leading to the doctor's recent arrest.

Among the illegal users, there were cases where someone paid 13.5 million won in a single day or paid approximately 250 million won 64 times over 11 months.

Police stated that the criminal proceeds amassed by the doctors reached 450.7 million won.

[Interview / Kang Seon-bong, Head of Narcotics Crime Investigation Unit 1, Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency: To evade narcotics monitoring and maintain the patients' sleep state for long periods, they simultaneously administered the sleep anesthetics dexmedetomidine and etomidate along with existing narcotics.]

Police have sent the 14 arrested individuals to prosecutors and requested the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety to review designating dexmedetomidine as a narcotic, in addition to etomidate, which was already designated as a narcotic last February.

Secret Operations at a Cheongdam-dong Hospital: Administering in Single Rooms and Secretly Filming While Asleep (July 26, 2026, 8 News)

Reported by Cho Min-ki | Produced by Choi Yoon-seo | Video by Lee Hong-myung | Graphics by Han Heung-soo | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.