A Nigerian drug lord was detained for misleading Koreans into smuggling drugs through romance scams.
A Nigerian drug crime organization's ringleader has been captured by the Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) for deceptioning Koreans into smuggling drugs through romance scams and other schemes.
K Jeff, 59, the leader of an emerging drug ring based in Nigeria, was arrested last Thursday in a joint operation between the NIS's Transnational Crime Information Center and Nigeria's National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA)
His organization operated bases in Southeast Asian nations, Africa, Korea, America and Europe to distribute drugs or carry out romance or investment scams to deceive people online into serving as drug couriers.
Victims, deceived by romance scams or fake investment opportunities, traveled to foreign countries to deliver backpacks, confectionary or grocery items packed with drugs to other countries at the false request of relaying gifts on behalf of the organization's members.
According to the NIS, a 50-year-old Korean woman was caught last year while delivering shaving wax containing cocaine from Brazil to Cambodia via Korea.
It was reported that ten additional victims, including foreigners, had been confirmed.
In 2008, K Jeff was deported from Korea while serving a one-year prison sentence for leading a drug distribution scheme. Since then, he has been procuring drugs from Korea, Central America, and Southeast Asia, and transporting them to Korea and beyond from Nigeria.
In 2021, Korean investigators arrested a Nigerian drug ring that operated in Korea for attempting to smuggle drugs from Ghana, and later traced it to the drug lord.
The NIS has confiscated 45.6 kilograms of drugs from this organization, including 28.4 kg of methamphetamine, and arrested 38 members of the group, the agency said, warning people about individuals who make online requests to deliver items overseas.
