The second largest club in Korea was actually an ”illegal drug club”...Students from a prestigious university also participated

The prosecution has uncovered 14 students who used and distributed illegal drugs in the second largest university student club in South Korea. The prosecution has indicted six of the main perpetrators, and eight others based on their level of involvement in the crime.
The Seoul Southern District Prosecutors' Office announced on the 5th that it had granted indictment without detention to the main suspect, a university student in his early 30s, who was arrested on the 1st of last month. In addition, the prosecution arrested and indicted three accomplices who actively participated in the crime.
The court also handed down indictment without detention to two other people, and conditional deferred prosecution to eight university students who had simply used illegal drugs.
The group led by suspect A engaged in the theft of psychotropic drugs and marijuana between December 2022 and December last year.
According to the prosecution, suspect A created a university student alliance club in 2021 and posted high-profile tweets on social media sites used by university students, such as Campus Pick.
The group has been promoting the fact that members can enjoy free or low-cost access to cheap imported cars, luxury hotels, high-end restaurants, member-only accommodations, and music festivals, and has attracted many students from universities such as Seoul National University and Korea University.
The group gathered about 300 students from 13 universities in the Tokyo metropolitan area. After getting to know the members, suspect A selected the members with the highest participation rate along with his accomplices, suspects B and C, who are university students in their mid-20s, and set them up in luxury hotels.
The suspects invited the participants to clubs, music festivals, etc., and when they started to let their guard down while drinking with them, they offered them liquid marijuana, claiming it would be effective against depression and addiction.
During this process, suspect A took a male member to a luxury hotel suite and an entertainment facility.
Prior to this, suspect A was sentenced to prison in April this year for violating the Special Act on the Punishment of Sexual Violence (threatening to use footage, etc.) and the Narcotics Control Act.
He was sentenced to three years in prison and is currently undergoing an appeal trial. During the trial of the suspect's illegal drug case, the prosecution discovered that money believed to be for the purchase of illegal drugs had been transferred to the suspect's account from members of the club on several occasions.
The prosecution confirmed the records of the deposits and began an investigation in March of this year. The prosecution seized the mobile phone of suspect A and analyzed the account and coin transaction records to track down his accomplices. Most of the suspects are from the capital.
It was confirmed that the former members included students who were preparing to re-enter medical or pharmaceutical schools, as well as students who were preparing to go on to law school by taking the Legal Aptitude Test (LEET).
The prosecution said the group joined a Telegram channel that provided information on how to deal with illegal drug investigations and obtained information on how to permanently delete documents stored on mobile phones, and used this information in its investigation.
The prosecutors plan to investigate the suspects for organizing and operating a criminal group. The Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office will also investigate the operators of the Telegram account, which has around 9,000 registered users.
We are working with them to conduct a follow-up investigation.