South Korea's Incheon court sentenced a woman in her 90s to one year in prison after clear evidence showed she helped launder money from drug trafficking for her son, who is the leader of an international drug trafficking network currently imprisoned in Cambodia.
The Incheon District Court of South Korea sentenced the female defendant, in her early 90s (name withheld), to one year in prison and ordered the confiscation of 386 million won (approximately 8.4 million baht) for violating the Special Act on the Prevention of Drug Trafficking.
According to the prosecutor's indictment, from April 2020 to February 2022, the defendant received nine anonymous money transfers totaling over 386.42 million won, which she then transferred to bank accounts as instructed by her son to conceal the origin of the funds or launder money.
Although the defendant tried to fight the case, claiming she did not know the source of the money, the court reviewed the evidence and found this claim unconvincing. The court noted supporting reasons, including that the defendant traveled to Cambodia five times in 2019 and was informed by phone of her son's arrest there, leading the court to believe she was well aware that the large sum was linked to her son's illegal business.
The defendant’s son, in his early 60s, was arrested in Cambodia in July 2020 on charges of possessing methamphetamine and remains in custody. However, investigations revealed he used a mobile phone to secretly command the drug trafficking network from prison, with at least nine shipments of drugs sent to South Korea between 2019 and 2022.
The judge stated in the ruling, "The defendant’s actions have made it more difficult to track and seize assets obtained from crimes and have supported the spread of drugs, which seriously impacts society. Therefore, strict punishment is necessary."
However, the court considered mitigating factors due to the defendant’s age of over 90 years, her lack of prior drug-related criminal history, and that she committed the offense under her son's orders. Despite these factors related to age and family influence, the South Korean court maintained the prison sentence to demonstrate the severity of drug and money laundering crimes at the international level.
/sourceKorea Herald