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A large number of wealthy children and celebrities have been put on trial for smoking marijuana and even selling it to people around them.

It turns out that some have even grown cannabis themselves.



Reporter Park Chan-geun reports.



[ Reporter



] Prosecutors caught 20 people, including children from conglomerates and singers, who habitually smoked marijuana and even sold it to people around them.



Among them, 17 people, excluding three who fled abroad, were handed over to trial, including the third generation of conglomerates such as Namyang Dairy Products, Korea Steel, and Hyosung Group.

[Shin Joon-ho/Chief of the Central District Prosecutors' Office's Violent



Crime Investigation Department: Most of them are international students in their 30s and 40s, so-called third-generation conglomerates, foreign nationals, wealthy people, and celebrities.]



Mr. is accused of distributing and smoking hemp to people around him in October of last year.



Mr. Hong, the grandson of the late Chairman Hong Jong-yeol, the founder of Korea Steel, was also arrested and indicted on charges of buying, selling or smoking hemp on several occasions.



Hyosung Group founder Cho Hong-je's grandson, Mr. Cho, was also indicted without detention on four counts of purchasing and smoking hemp last year.



Ahn Mo, a 40-year-old American singer who is a member of a trio of singers, was charged not only with buying and smoking hemp, but also for cultivating it himself.



In this case, after the police arrested and sent a 39-year-old surrogate surnamed Kim on charges of cultivating hemp in September of last year, the prosecution conducted a supplementary investigation, revealing the overall distribution process.



Prosecutors explained that some suspects were in a serious state of addiction and dependence, such as growing hemp in a family living with young children or smoking hemp while on a 'prenatal trip' with a pregnant wife.



Prosecutors said, "We will continue to thoroughly investigate hemp distribution offenders and focus on blocking the inflow and distribution of hemp in Korea."



(Video coverage: Seol Min-hwan, Video editing: Park Ki-duk)