Taiwanese man sentenced to six years for carrying methamphetamine after $1 million offer

A Taiwanese man in his 70s was sentenced to six years in prison after bringing a suitcase containing about 5.1 kilograms of methamphetamine into South Korea, allegedly for a promised $1 million payment.

The Busan District Court's Criminal Division 5 convicted him under South Korea's law on aggravated punishment for specific crimes involving narcotics. The drugs, handed to him outside a hotel in Cambodia on March 22, had an estimated value of 511.3 million won.

Investigators said the man placed three backpacks containing the methamphetamine inside a suitcase and checked it as baggage. He traveled from Siem Reap, Cambodia, through Hanoi, Vietnam, and arrived the following day at Gimhae International Airport.

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I will give you $1 million if you deliver an item needed for money laundering.

During the trial, he said a person who introduced himself as a British employee of the International Monetary Fund offered him $1 million to deliver an item needed for money laundering. He claimed he believed the suitcase held a security token, not methamphetamine.

The court rejected that defense. It pointed to his own statements that he had suspected the suitcase might contain drugs and had asked the person who gave it to him. The court also cited instructions to describe the contents as clothes and personal belongings if airline staff asked about the suitcase.

The judges said receiving $1 million simply to deliver an item was highly unusual and that he could have recognized that the suitcase contained something illegal that had to avoid detection. They also said the large quantity of methamphetamine and his denial of the crime weighed against him. In setting the sentence, however, the court considered his limited intent, the fact that the drugs were not distributed in South Korea, and the absence of significant payment.

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Receiving $1 million simply to deliver an item is highly unusual.