The alleged kingpin of a Nigeria-based international drug cartel has been taken into custody in Lagos on suspicion of smuggling illicit drugs into Korea for years, Korea?s spy agency said on Thursday.

According to the National Intelligence Service (NIS), a 59-year-old Nigerian identified as K. Jeff, was detained on Feb. 13 by local authorities on suspicion of operating a drug trafficking network spanning five continents and tricking people, including Koreans, into transporting meth and other stimulant drugs.

After five years of collaborative work with Nigeria?s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, the NIS Transnational Crime Information Center said it was able to track down key figures of the cartel. So far, 37 members, including Jeff, have been apprehended, it added.

According to the NIS, Jeff is no stranger to the illegal business. He was convicted in Korea for playing a major role in smuggling such drugs here in 2007 and sentenced to 12 months in prison. He was then deported back to Nigeria the following year.

Investigators found that he has since expanded his international network to Southeast Asia, Europe, Africa as well as the Americas, where he and his underlings cultivate, manufacture and sell illicit drugs.

Jeff used all sorts of tricks, including romance scams, to deceive people into doing the work.

A romance scam is a fraudulent scheme where a person creates a fraudulent online identity to gain a victim?s trust and affection through a romantic relationship, then uses that trust to manipulate the victim.

A Korean woman in her 50s was tricked last year into transporting depilatory wax products without knowing cocaine was concealed inside, the NIS said. She was caught on her way to a plane bound for Cambodia. About 10 Korean citizens were found to have been deceived into doing such work.

The NIS said it began to investigate the organization run by Jeff in 2020 in cooperation with the prosecution, the customs service and police here. The following year, they managed to locate some cartel members based in Korea who were attempting to smuggle drugs from Ghana.

Eventually, they shared key information about the cartel with Nigerian authorities in charge of drug-related investigations and even dispatched a team of investigators to the West African country to help them find its headquarters.

?We will continue to strengthen overseas cooperation and do our best to keep Koreans safe from drugs,? the NIS said in a statement, adding that many drug organizations have recently shifted their focus to Korea and other Asian countries as authorities in North America move to step up efforts to crack down on them. (The Korea Times)

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