Netflix K-Drama ‘Narco-Saints’ Is Based On A Real Korean Drug Lord
NETFLIX‘s Narco-Saints is an upcoming South Korean crime drama directed and co-written by Yoon Jong Bin and Kwon Sung Hui. The series is about a man involved in a National Intelligence Service (NIS) secret operation after being framed by a drug lord who controls Suriname.
Narco-Saints continues the legacy of Narcos, an American-Colombian crime-drama television series from 2015 to 2017, based on the story of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar. He became a billionaire through the production and distribution of cocaine.
There was also Narcos: Mexico from 2018 to 2021, a spin-off that tackles the early origins of the Drug Cartel of Mexico. It dramatizes the creation and rise of the Guadalajara Cartel in the 1980s.
This time around, Narco-Saints mainly was in Korean instead of Spanish. It was based on the life of drug lord Cho Bong Haeng (renamed Jeon Yo Hwan in the show), who operated a massive drug trafficking organization in Suriname between the late 1990s and early 2000s.
The series revolved around a simple entrepreneur Kang In Gu portrayed by Ha Jung Woo, who agreed to work with the National Intelligence Service and went on a secret mission to capture Korean drug lord Jeon Yo Hwan, portrayed by Hwang Jung Min. The star-studded series also has Yoo Yeon Seok of Hospital Playlist and Park Hae Soo of Squid Game and Money Heist: Joint Economic Area as part of its cast.
According to Chosunilbo and other Korean media, Cho Bong Haeng was arrested by the Brazilian federal police at an airport in São Paulo and was sentenced by the 29th Criminal Division of the Seoul Central District Court in 2011 to 10 years in prison.
His whereabouts since his arrest and imprisonment are reportedly a mystery.
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