Drug crimes committed by illegal foreigners in South Korea up 6.3 times in five years

As drug-related crimes committed by illegal foreign residents increase every year, police have arrested around 300 of them this year alone, the majority of whom were Thai.
According to documents submitted by the National Police Agency to Kim Mi-ae, a lawmaker from the ruling People's Power Party, on the 18th, between January and May of this year,
In 2018, 549 foreigners were arrested by police for drug-related offenses. Of these, 57.8% (317) were in the country illegally.
The number of drug-related crimes committed by illegal foreign residents in Japan is 6.3 times higher than five years ago in 2018 (172 people).
By fiscal year, the number was 353 in 2019, 697 in 2020, 811 in 2021, 945 in 2022, and 1,083 last year. During the same period, the number of drug-related offenses committed by foreigners was 597.
The number of illegal foreign residents arrested for drug offenses totaled 4,378 from 2018 to this year, with Thai nationality accounting for 71.5% (3,130 people).
This was followed by Vietnam with 718 people (16.4%), China with 203 people (4.6%), Russia with 68 people (1.6%), and Uzbekistan with 65 people (1.5%).
Rep. Kim said, "The Ministry of Justice, police, local governments and other related agencies must work together to implement comprehensive measures to eradicate drug crimes committed by foreigners and illegal immigrants.
"We must also begin considering establishing a new government-wide agency specializing in drug crimes, similar to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA)," he said.