[Anchor]

A drug dealer serving time in prison filed a prison complaint asking why the buyer who purchased drugs from him was not being punished. In response, the detective in charge sent handwritten letters directly to the prison, and the contents of these letters obtained by our reporting team have sparked controversy.

First, an exclusive report by reporter Dong Eunyeong.

[Reporter]

Another man named Lee appears repeatedly in the sentencing record of 53-year-old Roh, who has been serving time in prison since February of last year for illegal methamphetamine trafficking.

Lee is a person who attempted to buy methamphetamine from Roh for 1.1 million won in January of the year before last, but failed, bought methamphetamine from Roh for 3.2 million won in February of the same year, and received a free methamphetamine sample the following month.

Learning that Lee had not been punished or even booked, unlike himself who had been serving time for nearly a year and a half, Roh filed complaints with the Anti-Corruption and Civil Rights Commission and the Seoul Dongbu District Prosecutors' Office last April.

[Shin Al-chan / Lawyer: When drugs are traded, there is no case where only one side is not subject to punishment. It means that for over two years, he was not even booked and did not hold the status of a suspect. That is practically sweeping it under the rug.]

Then, in less than a week, a letter arrived at the prison. The sender was none other than the detective from the narcotics investigation team at the Seoul Songpa Police Station who had handled the cases of Roh and Lee.

The detective wrote in the letter that since Lee was under investigation for another drug case around a similar time, "it was viewed as a comprehensive single crime, and that specific case was not separately recognized."

Unconvinced by this explanation, Roh filed another complaint, and the detective sent another letter to the prison.

It stated an entirely reversed position from the letters sent three weeks prior, reading, "We are conducting a pre-booking investigation regarding Lee," and "Please use this as reference as we will provide intermediate notices on the investigation progress."

A week later, the final letter contained the message, "We plan to forward Lee's case to the prosecution within this month," and "There is no longer any need to submit a petition."

According to SBS reporting, the Seoul Songpa Police Station actually forwarded Lee to the prosecution in mid-May. Controversy is growing as it has been revealed that the police failed to even book a person whose drug-related charges were identified for over two years since the incident occurred.

(Photo courtesy of Lee Sang-hak | Video by Kim Yun-seong | Graphics by Park Cheon-woong)