Prosecutors indict 8 men over suspected drug links with North Korea

[DoYouEverWonder]

June 29, 2006

Prosecutors on Wednesday indicted eight men in connection with the seizing of a North Korean ship that was used in an alleged attempt to smuggle amphetamines into Japan four years ago, officials said.

The eight men -- seven Japanese nationals and one South Korean -- were arrested earlier this year and face charges of violating Japan's Stimulant Drugs Control Law, the Tokyo District Prosecutors' office said in a statement.

The Turubong 1 ship was allegedly carrying 237 kilograms of amphetamines from Chongjin, a North Korean port, in November 2002 to a prearranged point in the Sea of Japan, the statement said.

The ship dropped off the cargo for pickup by a Japanese vessel owned by one of the arrested men, but the vessel failed to find the cargo due to bad weather, according to the statement. Japanese police later discovered the drugs washed ashore on the country's northwestern coast.

The boat was seized and searched by Japanese authorities in May, and later returned to North Korea.

News reports have said the South Korean man, Woo Shi-chung, 59, is also suspected of smuggling amphetamines on two earlier occasions in 2002 using a different vessel.

http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/national/news/20060629p2a00m0na008000c.html


Why does this story smell of Rev. Moon? Odd this stuff was coming out of or through North Korea?

[htuttle]

1. Anyone clear on the relationship between Moon and Kim Jong Il?

On the surface, I'd expect Moon's professed anti-communism to be an issue between them, yet the Unification Church has a number of extensive business interests in North Korea (including partnership in an automobile factory), so it seems they are sort of 'partners'.

What gives?

:shrug:

[Bonobo]

2. They were dumb enough to use a ship called "Turubong 1"!?

TuruBONG!?

:smoke:

:banghead:

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. I wonder how many bongs

you could make from all that bicycle tubing?



12 de mayo de 2006 - Japanese police investigators search North Korean cargo ship Turubong 1 with used bicycles piled up at Sakaiminato harbor, which borders the Sea of Japan.


http://es.news.yahoo.com/12052006/24/foto/japanese-police-investigators-search-north-korean-cargo-ship-turubong-1.html

[DoYouEverWonder]

4. This story just gets curiouser and curiouser

May 13, 2006
Seems they tracked the So Korean fellow down with a cell phone recovered from a North Korean spy ship that sank. WTF!


Smuggling suspect believed to be in touch with gangsters: sources

(Kyodo) _ The police investigating a suspected smuggling of amphetamine by a North Korean ship in 2002 suspect that a South Korean man arrested in connection with the case had been directly in touch with Japanese gangsters, sources familiar with the matter said Saturday.

The suspect, Woo Si Yun, 59, is suspected of regularly contacting, with his mobile phone, the office of another man arrested in the case, Katsuhiko Miyata, 58, the leader of a gang group affiliated with a major underworld syndicate, the Kyokuto-kai, the sources said.

The sources said that the mobile phone in question was recovered from a North Korean spy ship that sank in the East China Sea in 2001 after an exchange of fire with Japanese patrol boats.

Woo turned out to be one of the people who owned the phone temporarily before it was recovered by the Japanese police, the sources said, adding that the call log included Woo's relatives.

The call log of another mobile phone showed Woo's tendency to make frequent calls to Miyata's office when he was outside Japan, the sources said.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/060512/kyodo/d8hif9s00.html