[Anchor]

Looking at the contents of the letter in question, the police officer decided that the drug buyer could be handled together with another drug case, so they did not book the suspect and explained as if they would not do so in the future. However, according to our coverage, it was revealed that the drug buyer was utilized as an informant cooperating with the police's undercover investigation.

Continuing with the exclusive report by Reporter Yoo Soo-Hwan.

[Reporter]

The first letter sent to the prison by the detective in charge at the Songpa Police Station stated, "We viewed it as a single comprehensive offense combined with Lee's other drug cases, and did not separately recognize it."

This means they judged that the case could be handled by bundling it with A's previous different crimes.

However, drug investigation experts pointed out that this case is an instance where the legal principle of a single comprehensive offense cannot be applied.

[Shin Al-chan / Drug Specialist Attorney (Sedam Law Firm): It is difficult to apply the single comprehensive offense principle to drug trading. They are usually punished respectively as concurrent crimes. It seems to be quite an independent view by the police officer....]

Furthermore, since the seller, Roh, has already had evidence proven and is serving actual prison time, experts noted that in this case, there appears to be no further need to investigate the counterpart buyer.

Because of this, Roh's side argued that the police intentionally conducted a lenient investigation favoring one side. However, according to SBS's reporting, it was found that Lee actually cooperated with the police investigation during the process of apprehending Roh.

Except for the first attempted crime among Roh's three charges, the remaining two were police undercover operations, and Lee engaged in the drug transaction at the request of the police at the time.

While acknowledging these facts to the SBS reporting team, the Songpa Police Station explained that the reason they left Lee unbooked for over two years and only recently booked him was not because of Roh's petition, but "merely a coincidence in timing."

They stated, "The mention regarding the single comprehensive offense was a misstatement by a detective unfamiliar with legal principles."

[Shin Al-chan / Drug Specialist Attorney (Sedam Law Firm): The prosecution has no authority to recognize simple drug ingestion and trading cases. Only the police can investigate these cases, so even if a lenient investigation favoring someone occurs, no one can check it.]

Inappropriate dealings between informants and investigation team detectives in drug cases have consistently been a controversy.

Just on the 10th, a police superintendent belonging to the Seoul Gwangjin Police Station was relieved of duties on charges of leaking investigative information to a drug suspect whom he made an "informant," and is currently under investigation himself.

(Camera Footage: Yang Hyun-chul, Lee Sang-hak | Video Editing: Lee Sang-min)