20 Filipino seafarers under probe in South Korea’s largest ever drug bust

20 Filipino seafarers under probe in South Korea’s largest ever drug bust
Jamaine Punzalan, Agence France-Presse Apr 10, 2025 https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/world/2025/4/11/taiwan-charges-chinese-ship...

This Korea Customs Service handout photo taken on April 2, 2025 and obtained via Yonhap on April 4, 2025, shows officials from the Donghae Regional Coast Guard and the Korea Customs Service moving packages believed to contain cocaine after they were detected by the Korea Customs Service and Korea Coast Guard from a foreign ship anchored at Okgye port in Gangneung. The Korea Coast Guard said they had found "two tons" of what they suspect to be pure cocaine on a Norwegian-flagged vessel which had departed from Mexico and made stops in Ecuador, Panama, and China. Korea Customs Service/Yonhap/AFP
MANILA — Twenty Filipino seafarers remained under investigation in South Korea on Thursday, over a week after authorities discovered two tons of cocaine hidden aboard a ship in the country’s largest drug bust to date, the Department of Migrant Workers said.

The Korea Coast Guard said it had found "two tons" of what they suspected to be pure cocaine on a Norwegian-flagged vessel that had departed from Mexico and made stops in Ecuador, Panama, and China.

The ship’s all-Filipino crew were “under investigation in a port in the eastern coastline of South Korea,” said DMW Secretary Hans Leo Cacdac.

“Patuloy na nag-aantabay tayo sa resulta ng imbestigasyon,” he told TeleRadyo Serbisyo.

A lawyer from the shipowner has met with the 20 Filipino seafarers, Cacdac said. He added that another lawyer from the DMW would soon join their defense team.

The seafarers will continue receiving their salary during the investigation, Cacdac said, citing assurances from the Filipinos’ manning agency in Manila.

He said the DMW was also in touch with the seafarers’ families and Philippine embassy officials in Seoul.

South Korean authorities had launched the operation on the vessel after receiving intelligence from US agencies that it was carrying hidden narcotics.

After the vessel docked at an east coast port in South Korea, the team immediately boarded the vessel and "discovered a hidden compartment behind the ship's engine room".

The drugs were packed in 56 sacks, each holding some 30 to 40 kilograms of the drug, authorities said, bringing the total haul to around two tons.

"Preliminary field tests confirmed the substances as suspected cocaine," the Korea Coast Guard official told AFP.

"The seizure is the largest in history, about five times bigger than the previous record which was 404 kilograms of methamphetamine," a Korea Customs Service official told AFP.

The estimated street value is one trillion won (around P39.3 billion), they added.

Authorities have launched a joint investigation team to question the vessel's captain and crew about the origin and intended destination of the drugs, and the route used to transport them.

Investigators also said they are looking into potential ties to international drug trafficking syndicates and will expand cooperation with the FBI and Homeland Security Investigations.

South Korea has long ranked among the countries with low drug use globally, thanks to its strict laws and strong social stigma.