S. Korean Man Admits to Smuggling ¥500 Million in Gold by Drop-off at Sea

The Yomiuri Shimbun

16:29 JST, February 14, 2025

A 41-year-old South Korean man admitted in a trial Thursday to charges that he was involved in smuggling gold worth over ¥500 million via a handover at sea.

Late last year, the 7th Regional Coast Guard Headquarters and other authorities arrested a group of 13 South Korean and Japanese nationals on suspicion of violating the Customs Law by smuggling about 40 kilograms of gold bullion using cruise ships that connect Busan and Osaka. Ten of them were indicted.

In his first hearing at the Fukuoka District Court’s Kokura Branch, the man admitted to the charges. “I’ve done it about 20 times,” he said when questioned by the judge.

According to the indictment, the group threw a suitcase containing 40 kilograms of gold bullion worth about ¥518 million from a ship that had departed from Busan into the sea off Imabari in Ehime Prefecture in early November. The group then retrieved the suitcase from the sea using another ship and brought it to shore in the city, thereby avoiding consumption and other taxes totaling about ¥50 million.

In their opening statement, the prosecutors claimed that the man was introduced to someone in the group by an acquaintance and became involved in the smuggling from around December 2023. They alleged that he was paid at least ¥500,000 per smuggling operation for his role in keeping watch on the Japan Coast Guard’s ships from lookout spots along the coast.