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A group of people who secretly imported Chinese abortion pills that are not licensed in Korea and tricked them into selling them were caught.

They even pretended to be pharmacists in social media open chat rooms.



By Son Hyeong-an, staff reporter.



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Last December, a house in Daegu.



As Incheon customs investigators searched all over the house, boxes containing illegal Chinese abortion pills came out one after another.



Three people, including 35-year-old A, are accused of stealing 57,000 Chinese abortion pills, valued at 2.3 billion won, into Korea from July 2020 to March last year.



The abortion pills purchased in China were smuggled in by hiding them in clothing pockets and attaching them to express cargo.



The abortion pills imported in this way were replaced with so-called 'packaging changes' as if they were made in the United States and distributed in the market.



The method of selling drugs that were banned from domestic distribution because their safety was not verified was also bold.



We opened an open social media chat room and even consulted as if we were a pharmacist, saying that abortions can be safely carried out with drugs.



[Roh Kyung-guk/Incheon Headquarters Customs Investigation Team Leader: When taking the drug without knowing the exact pregnancy status, there are serious side effects that can even threaten life



. The drug was sold for 360,000 won in Korea.



The number of purchases confirmed by customs alone amounted to about 5,300, and the amount of money earned from crimes reached 1.9 billion won.



In order to avoid the investigation network, they only received the proceeds from the sale of abortion pills in a borrowed-name account, and it was also shown that the money was hoarded and stolen immediately before the money was accumulated.



Incheon Customs said that it is continuing the investigation into the general manager in China after sending three persons per day without detention on charges of violating the Customs Act and the Pharmaceutical Affairs Act.



(Video coverage: Kim Tae-hoon, video editing: Yoon Tae-ho, video courtesy: Incheon Headquarters Customs)