Korea has seen its own Walter White, as a 30-year old male was arrested for running a meth house in the basement of his house in Itaewon, Seoul.
On March 2, Seoul Police arrested 12 people and indicted 38 for participating in a drug house and abusing substances for breaching the Narcotics Control Act of South Korea.
The owner of the house, Mr. Hwang (32) had set up his basement as a drug factory in May of 2016, and began producing and selling up to 500mg of methamphetamine since November of that year.
According to sources, Mr. Hwang read up on multiple books and began producing and selling meth as he couldn’t find employment after graduating from college. He had disguised his basement as a wood crafting station and explained the smell was from different adhesives needed for wood work.
Furthermore, Mr. Hwang made sure to make his basement invisible from the outside by blocking it off from the outside. The basement had only a vent for circulation so Hwang needed to wear a gas mask while ‘cooking’.
Mr. Hwang was able to easily gather the ingredients for meth from pharmacies. He then sold it on the Internet to people of varying backgrounds. For example, one of his customers was even an elementary school teacher in their 20’s. Others were caught pretending to be buyers attempting to resell the drugs for a profit.
Police reports stated that Mr. Hwang’s 500g of meth was enough for 16,000 people to inject, and would have been sold for a total of 16 billion Won ($1,388,528 USD).
Source: Joongang Ilbo
