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I heard that the number of drug offenders has increased significantly among the younger generation.

As a result of the crackdown, it actually spread to people in their 20s and 30s, as well as teenagers.

Even masquerading as a party room, decorating a space where you can grow and smoke hemp is becoming more daring.



Reporter Park Jae-yeon reports.



<Reporter>



A club in Busan, the police forcibly open the door and enter.



Drugs in the form of pills are found when dozens of foreigners search all over the partying club.



[Here it is.

Here it is.]



[Dispatch police officer: As of the current time, red-handed criminals are being arrested for violating the Narcotics Control Act.]



In the warehouse the couple rented in Gimpo, Gyeonggi Province, hemp was being grown in a space decorated like a greenhouse.



The confiscated amount is enough for 180,000 people to inhale at the same time.



Right next to it, there was even a 'party room' equipped with musical instruments, game consoles, and cooking facilities, and so-called hallucination parties were held.



[Dispatched police officer: Urgently arrested for violating the Cannabis Management Act.]



The police conducted a special crackdown for five months from August last year and arrested 5,700 drug offenders.



This is a 38% increase compared to the same period last year.



In particular, the number of arrests in clubs and entertainment establishments increased 11 times compared to the previous year.



By age, drug dealers in their 20s and 30s who are familiar with online non-face-to-face transactions accounted for 57% of the total, while the increase in teenagers was also steep, with three high school students in Incheon being caught distributing methamphetamine through social media.



The number of teenage drug offenders arrested by the police has nearly tripled in the past five years, from 104 in 2018 to 294 in 2022.



The police said drug crimes that are traded on the so-called 'dark web' or virtual assets, which are difficult to find through general searches, are on the rise, and they announced that they would respond by establishing a specialized investigation team.



(Video editing: Seongwon Ha, screen provided: National Police Agency)