Man accused of transporting drugs repatriated after 22 years on the lam

A man suspected of transporting more than 5 tons of narcotics aboard a fishing vessel in waters off South America in the early 2000s has been repatriated to Korea after spending 22 years on the run, police said Monday.

The man, whose identity was withheld, was brought back home last Tuesday in coordination with the Busan Coast Guard after being deported by authorities in Ghana, where he had been hiding for about 22 years, the National Police Agency said.

The man is accused of transporting narcotics on behalf of a drug trafficking organization on five separate occasions in international waters off South America between 2002 and 2004, when he was serving as a supervisor of a deep-sea fishing vessel, and receiving payment for the shipments.

The transported narcotics are believed to have been 5,385 kilograms of cocaine worth 4.8 trillion won ($3.6 billion), according to the agency. The suspect fled to Ghana after his accomplices were arrested and lived there as an undocumented immigrant from around 2004.

He was repatriated after the Busan Coast Guard requested an Interpol Red Notice for him and the police agency confirmed his whereabouts through information sharing with the Ghanaian police.

Yonhap