South Korean City Hall Official Gets 2 Years for Hiding Drugs for Crypto

A South Korean city hall official who collected and hid narcotics in exchange for cryptocurrency was sentenced to two years in prison.

News1 reported on July 24 that Hwang Won-seo, a presiding judge at the Suwon District Court, sentenced the Grade 7 municipal official, identified only as A, to two years in prison for violating the Narcotics Control Act. A's live-in girlfriend, identified as B, received 18 months in prison for taking part in the crime.

From December 2025 to January 2026, A collected narcotics from a drug dealer on Telegram and hid them at designated locations. He is reported to have exploited blind spots in closed-circuit television cameras that he had identified while carrying out his city hall duties. In return, A received cryptocurrency worth about $8,700.

Judge Hwang said the defendant handled 115 grams of methamphetamine over about 150 occasions and committed offenses including possessing or using multiple types of narcotics, such as synthetic marijuana and ecstasy. He also obtained about $8,700 in illegal proceeds in the process, the judge said.