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Liquor in U.S. Military Base Is Stolen through Underground Tunnel

Liquor in U.S. Military Base Is Stolen through Underground Tunnel

Posted September. 04, 2003 23:07,   

한국어

Customs Office unearthed customs dodgers who smuggled out duty-free beer from U.S. military bases through an underground tunnel.

According to Seoul Customs, suspects, known as Lee (34) and Song (48), a Post Exchange manager, were arrested yesterday by the Seoul Prosecutors‘ Office. They were under suspicions of illegally trafficking 2 billion won-worth duty-free liquors out of U.S. military bases and distributing them in imported goods shops in traditional marketplaces in Seoul, which is a violation of Article 269 in the Customs law.

Seoul Customs is additionally investigating 28 carriers, middlemen, and vendors who conspired with the arrested for distribution routes and the smuggled items.

Seoul Customs said that the smugglers used Hannam Village in Hannam-dong, Yongsan-gu, Seoul as a hideout. Hannam Village, which is managed by a subsidiary of Korea national Housing Corporation, is a residential complex for families of U.S. military officers who serve in Yongsan base of U.S. army.

Lee, a suspect, rented a five-pyong shop at a corner of Hannam Village and ran a Korean pop-rice shop until November 2001. In the following month, he remodeled the place as a coffee shop, U-turn Espresso.

He began to dig an underground tunnel in June 2001 with a hoe and a military-use shovel during nighttime. After three-month work, the tunnel was 20 meter long to near the PX inventory container inside Hannam Village. Song also worked on drilling a hole on the floor of the container.

The underground tunnel is 1.5 meter deep from the coffee shop and 1.2 meter deep from the container floor. Beer has been trafficked on a rail, set up on the slanted underground tunnel.

It is known that 58,000 boxes of U.S. beer cans and 4,000 boxes of wines have been smuggled from June 2001 through June 25 of this year. This amounts to 250 truckloads with the vehicle capacity of 2.5 tons and 2 billion won in value. The illegally trafficked products were sold in Namdaemun and Dongdaemun markets via transportation managers and middlemen.

Korea Customs Service estimated that the evaded tax would amount to 1.2 billion won and that the smugglers made 5,000 to 6,000 won out of a box of 24 bottles of beer. Yet, the suspects are reported to claim that the profit margin was no more than 1,000 won per box.

“Illegal trafficking in duty-free liquor has been a consistent problem, but it is the first case that the smugglers use an underground tunnel in delivering beer in large quantities”, said Oh, Tae-young, a chief investigator at Seoul Customs, adding, “Comprising customs officers of Korea and investigators of U.S. military in Korea, ROK-U.S. joint investigating team will heighten its alert.”



Ji-Wan Cha cha@donga.com