A man in his 20s has been sentenced to prison by a lower court for selling drugs on the only Korean-language “dark web” site in the country. The dark web, a part of the internet that requires specific software or configurations to access, is often used for illicit activities.
The Seoul Central District Court, presided over by Judge Ji Gui-yeon, sentenced the 20-something defendant, identified only by his surname Park, to three years and six months in prison on Tuesday for violating the Narcotics Control Act, among other charges.
In addition to the prison sentence, the court ordered him to complete 80 hours of drug rehabilitation education and seized approximately 260 million won ($196,000) in drug sale proceeds.
Prosecutors had previously indicted 16 individuals, including drug dealers, suppliers and couriers, who were involved in distributing marijuana, synthetic 카지노 marijuana and liquid marijuana cartridges worth a total of 8.6 billion won on a drug trafficking site from June 2022 to June this year.
The dark web shopping mall had around 4,000 members.
The drugs sold through the site included both smuggled items from abroad and substances produced domestically. The dealers, mostly in their 20s and 30s, included many first-time offenders with no prior drug convictions.
Some of the dealers also grew marijuana at home or manufactured liquid marijuana, in addition to smuggling about 900 million won worth of drugs.
Park was one of these dealers. He was prosecuted for advertising marijuana sales multiple times on the site and for selling 2.5 kilograms of Cannabis, valued at approximately 260 million won, in 314 separate transactions. He was also charged with possessing 827 grams of marijuana for personal use.
“Had the marijuana possession at Park’s residence not been discovered, it is likely he would have committed even greater crimes,” the judge said. “Park appears to be a professional dealer in marijuana, making strict punishment inevitable.”
