Customs Officers Arrested for Attempting to Sell Seized Wine on Black Market

[Anchor] Is it true that customs officers were arrested for attempting to embezzle high-end wine that had been seized?

[Reporter] Yes, it is a classic case of letting the fox guard the henhouse.

Officers A and B from the Seoul Customs Investigation Bureau are accused of receiving tens of millions of won in bribes in exchange for handing over seized smuggled wine to a black market broker.

The investigation revealed that while in charge of gathering intelligence on smuggling and conducting investigations, they exploited a regulation where seized food and beverages are destroyed without public auction due to storage issues. They planned to siphon off the high-end seized wine to the black market by swapping them with cheap wine, a method known as bottle-switching.

It is reported that they had planned to hand over 88 bottles of high-end wine with a market value of 500 million won.

However, due to internal customs circumstances, a significant portion of the seized wine was returned because the statute of limitations had expired, effectively causing the originally planned deal to fall through.

Despite this, the officers demanded an additional 40 million won from the broker without delivering a single bottle of wine.

The broker, harboring a grudge, reported them to the police, which ultimately led to the discovery of the crime.

The court has issued arrest warrants for the officers, and the police plan to refer the case to the prosecution following further investigation.
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.