Swiss octogenarian convicted of drug smuggling in Korea

The man claimed he did not know that there were drugs in the suitcase he took to Jeju Island. Keystone-SDA

A Swiss man in his 80s has been sentenced to three-and-a-half years in prison in South Korea for drug smuggling. The man was accused of having brought close to three kilogrammes of methamphetamine to Jeju Island.

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According to a report in the tabloid Blick on Monday, the man told a district court that he had brought the suitcase containing the drugs to Jeju at the request of a third party while he was in Cambodia. He did not know that there were drugs in the suitcase, he said. The Blick report is based on information from a South Korean online portal.

According to these reports, the Swiss man’s defence lawyer said that the accused had been contacted on social media by someone who claimed he wanted to send a gift to a Japanese banker. This person had offered $8.5 million (CHF6.8 million) as a reward for the delivery of the suitcase.

The court was unable to prove that the Swiss man knew about the drugs in the suitcase. Nevertheless, according to the judgement, the octogenarian would probably have accepted the request even if he had known that it contained drugs. According to the reports, the fact that all of the methamphetamine was confiscated and not placed on the market mitigated the sentence.

Foreign ministry confirms arrest

The Swiss foreign ministry confirmed the arrest of a Swiss citizen in South Korea on Monday in response to an enquiry. “The Swiss embassy in Seoul is in contact with the competent local authorities and is supporting this fellow citizen within the framework of consular protection,” the ministry said.

The ministry did not provide any additional information for reasons of data and privacy protection.

Methamphetamine is a synthetic drug that is considered extremely dangerous. It is often sold on the black market in the form of small crystals known as “crystal meth”.

Translated from German with DeepL/gw

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