Pubdate: Tue, 04 Sep 2001 Source: Korea Times (South Korea) Copyright: 2001 The Hankookilbo Contact: http://www.hk.co.kr/board/ktboard.htm Website: http://www.hk.co.kr/times.htm Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/916 Author: Ryu Jin PUSAN POLICE BREAK UP INT'L DRUG SMUGGLING RING An international drug smuggling ring that supplied various narcotics in Pusan was broken up yesterday, said the Pusan Metropolitan Police Agency. The police announced that they arrested eight Russian drug traffickers, including a 46-year-old former member of the Russian mafia, on the charge of distributing drugs to foreigners and citizens for the past three and a half years, using the shopping area of Choryang-dong in the southern port city. The police also began a search for two Iranian dope peddlers, who brought in heroin, hashish and marijuana from the Middle East and provided them to the Russian gang. According to police officers, the drug smuggling group, which called itself ``Baso and his Family,'' is also suspected of involvement in several instances of human smuggling, including one in July that transported illegal foreign residents of Korea from Pusan to Hokkaido in Japan. Pusan's police agency is inquiring into further crimes after obtaining a secret tip that the organized crime ring meddled in the operation of shops in the shopping area frequented by foreigners, and investigating whether or not the gang is linked to domestic organized crime rings. - --- MAP posted-by: Josh