South Korean Police Set New Record With One-Tonne Cocaine Bust on Bulker

 

Police in South Korea have seized one tonne of cocaine from a cargo ship arriving from South America, the largest drug bust on record in a nation with comparatively low narcotics imports. 

The Korea Coast Guard and the Seoul Regional Customs Office received a tipoff from the U.S. FBI early Tuesday morning about an inbound shipment on a bulker. The vessel was headed for Korea and would soon be berthing at the port of Okgye, south of Gangneung on the peninsula's east coast. 

A force of 90 personnel met the vessel at the pier to carry out a search. They found 50 packages containing 20 kilos of cocaine each in hiding places on board, for a total of one tonne - more than twice the previous record. On the Korean market, the drugs would be worth about $340 million.  

                      Courtesy Donghae Coast Guard

Korean media did not name the ship, but described it as a Norwegian-flagged bulker, 32,000 tonnes in size, with a recent history of port calls in Mexico, Ecuador, Panama and China. The 32,000 GT Norwegian bulker Lunita is currently moored at Okgye, and its AIS history matches this description.

AIS data provided by Pole Star shows that the drugs likely stayed on board for a long time, through multiple port calls. Lunita called at Manzanillo in early January, followed by Guayaquil, Ecuador; Matarani, Peru; and an anchorage off Panama City, Panama. All are known ports of origin for cocaine smuggling. 

She then crossed the Pacific and called at the Hyundai steel mill at Dangjin, Korea; Wushan Port, an inland Chinese port upriver from Shanghai; Zhapu International Harbor, a minor terminal on bustling Hangzhou Bay; and then the small two-berth port of Okgye. None of these are common destinations for cocaine shipments, as the penalties are severe and the markets limited. China executes foreign smugglers, and Korean drug laws impose long prison sentences. 

Lunita's AIS trackline during the first quarter of 2025 (Pole Star)