Man caught for hoarding 3,171 packs of tobacco before price hike

“I have lots of tobacco….”

An office worker identified by his last name Woo, 32, posted this comment when cigarette-related posts had been uploaded on Joonggonara (second-hand product market), an online café on the portal Naver. If a netizen contacts him to his mobile number by searching his online ID, he asked whether the caller had intent to purchase tobacco. Afterwards, he met with the netizen in person and sold tobacco, which he had bought before the recent tobacco price hike, at below the current market price.

After learning that tobacco price would be raised by 2,000 won (1.85 U.S. dollars) per pack beginning this year, he moved around large discount stores and hoarded 3,171 packs of tobacco from October to December last year. Using mobile gift certificates for convenience stores that he bought at a lower price by 5 percent through Joonggonara, he also bought tobacco at prices lower than the market price to amass tobacco. Woo also used the method of buying tobacco en masse from his friend, Shin, 32, who operates a convenience store. Woo has sold tobacco that he collected through such methods to netizens on two occasions, and pocketed over 1.6 million won (1,480 dollars) in total through illegal transactions.

Woo was not alone. Salaried workers Park, 33, and Shin, 34, uploaded posts suggesting "a pack of tobacco on sale for 4,000 won (3.69 dollars)" on Joonggonara, and actually sold it. They had also hoarded 215 packs and 361 packs of cigarette, respectively, from neighborhood convenience stores and supermarkets in November and December last year. The current Tobacco Business Act provides that anyone who sells tobacco without acquiring retail license can be sentenced to up to six months in prison or up to 5 million won (4,610 dollars) of fines. Jongam Police Station in Seoul said on Wednesday that it had booked without detention four people, including Woo.