It seems like every year there is always some idiot who thinks he can get away with mailing contraband to Korea:
Korea will strengthen monitoring of international mail delivered to the U.S. soldiers stationed here, the foreign ministry said yesterday, in light of a drug trafficking case involving an active American soldier who mailed himself contraband.
The latest measure comes as Korean prosecutors said Thursday they secured an arrest warrant for a U.S. Army private accused of smuggling large amounts of synthetic marijuana from Hungary via international mail and will indict him on drug charges next week.
The foreign ministry recently held a meeting with working officials of the Justice Ministry, law enforcement agencies and the tax agency to discuss ways to put international mail delivered to American servicemen under closer watch to better detect illegal substances, said a ministry official. [Joong Ang Ilbo]
It is stories like this that I used to hang up on my unit’s bulletin board as well as make part of a safety brief just in case there was some idiot out there who suddenly had the bright idea he could get away with mailing drugs into Korea.
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4:15 pm on July 22nd, 2012 1
It looks like they were monitoring it enough. They caught him, after all.
4:36 pm on July 22nd, 2012 2
#1,
Shhh, it’s an election year.
6:05 pm on July 22nd, 2012 3
people come and go, but idiocy is forever.
6:08 pm on July 22nd, 2012 4
Funny that S&S has been nowhere near this – it was picked-up by CNN last Thursday. Of course because of useless idiots like this, we can now expect the APO mail to take even longer while more people pick though it. I do wonder how this will play out though, with the whole USPS vs. host nation rules, etc.?
7:13 pm on July 22nd, 2012 5
What kind of idiots did you employ in your unit that you needed to hang up stories like this on the bulletin board and make them part of a safety briefing?
Never shake you baby
Don’t drink and drive
Don’t rape people
Don’t send drugs through the mail
Don’t through grenades into your PL’s tent
Don’t sneak into a village and shoot people
What a shame soldiers need to be told these things
8:28 pm on July 22nd, 2012 6
#4-also noticed that S&S hasn’t touched the story concerning the KN worker that was caught selling Good Neighbor Access Passes in Daegu at Camp Henry…Always wished S&S could have some hard nosed reporter that would ask the hard questions of the leadership in Korea…of course, he probably wouldn’t be invited back on base after the first hard question…:)
9:02 pm on July 22nd, 2012 7
#6 – yes, I know what you mean. There have been various stories over the years where S&S either chooses not to or is told not cover. Those that come to mind are the suicide of the 19th AG/Honor Guard Soldier right outside the White House, the aparent suicide of a contractor (that some here knew well) in the DHL, the mysterious suddenly hush-hush case of Vang Her, and the access-peddling issue that you mention. Makes you wonder just how much ‘journalistic freedom’ they really have…
10:47 pm on July 22nd, 2012 8
First, the mass murdering through shooting sprees, and now drug pushers and drug smugglers.. Americans are truly sick in the head.
This is exactly the reason why it’s ludicrous for American MP’s to patrol Korea with their guns, with them itching to use them. It’s the mentality based on a violent culture.
11:27 pm on July 22nd, 2012 9
Tom
I think it’s interesting that those of you who whinge about mass murder in the USA seem to avert your eyes from your own government rounding up people and killing them between 1948 and 1980.
11:45 pm on July 22nd, 2012 10
Anyone stupid enough to do this really should be locked up somewhere. Their existence is a hazard.
11:52 pm on July 22nd, 2012 11
jinro-I know that the various commanders I had while serving in Korea over the past 10 years always made it seem like S&S were the “bad” guys, so I don’t know how much control they really have over them, other than not allowing them into the press briefings…
1:38 am on July 23rd, 2012 12
Michel 9, Tom’s government starves its people. It shoots them and imprisons their families if they try to leave. They’ve been doing it continuously since 1945, and they didn’t stop in 1980.
3:12 am on July 23rd, 2012 13
Yes, it was unfortunate.
3:32 am on July 23rd, 2012 14
Koreans have been subjected to brutal repression not only from foreigners but Koreans as well.
We were at each others throat in 1950 and we still are eye-balling each other.
We need to be able to develop nuclear weapons of all types AND missiles with unlimited range. The U.S. is only obstacle we need to overcome.
We shall own WMD for our self -defense.
2:29 pm on July 23rd, 2012 15
The US is the only obstacle you need to overcome? What the hell? What about your neighbor to the North?
Without the US, Korea wouldn’t be where it it today…you’d be speaking Mandarin.
6:50 pm on July 23rd, 2012 16
@7, is this the Vang Her you mean? https://www.facebook.com/vangHERphotography
7:00 pm on July 23rd, 2012 17
Seoul Guy wtf, we are an obstacle to over come? How’s that? Please do explain.
7:11 pm on July 23rd, 2012 18
Bob, it’s Tom’s boyfriend…
7:51 pm on July 23rd, 2012 19
Where drugs are outlawed, only outlaws have drugs.
9:16 pm on July 23rd, 2012 20
Tom is a very sweet and loving man, lol
1:26 am on July 24th, 2012 21
#16 – no, I was talking about this case:
http://rokdrop.com/2007/05/08/naked-usfk-soldier-killed-by-taxi-cab/
which had (and still has) many lingering important unanswered questions, was barely if at all covered by S&S and was hushed-up by USFK as quickly as possible. People Her’s unit tied to come forward and were either muzzled or PSCed hurriedly out of the country. You’ve got to wonder if anyone, especially his family, will ever find out what really happened…