Chapter 375
Translator: crow
Chapter Title: War on Drugs
War on Drugs!
“Sounds pretty badass, right? But they’re not actually going to wage a real war.”
People figured the Korean government was just using some tough rhetorical flourish.
They were wrong.
The Korean government was dead serious about going to war with narcotics.
Korean intelligence agencies and law enforcement first worked their way up the smuggling chains from the drug criminals they’d already arrested.
“We don’t need to find them all. Just track down a couple.”
“Got ’em.”
That was how they traced a few back to the final production sites.
Something ordinary judicial systems couldn’t pull off.
But the Korean government had intelligence agents who could listen in and surveil everything.
“Bang Hyung-sik. Pull every call record on that bastard.”
Before long, the Korean government had mapped out the routes narcotics were taking into the country.
The main production hubs were in the Golden Triangle between Myanmar, Thailand, and Laos.
The reason drugs were produced there was simple.
“It’s an anarchic no-man’s-land the government can’t control.”
They churned out drugs in power vacuums beyond any government’s reach.
The classic setup for cartels in Central and South America.
Korea decided to start by hitting that region.
“How, exactly?”
“Time for some human hunting.”
To negotiate with criminals, you first had to show them who was boss.
“That’s the only way they’ll listen.”
Korea secured permission from its Third World ally Thailand to conduct military operations on their soil, in exchange for 250 million won in economic aid.
“We’re only targeting Thai cartels?”
“Of course not. We’ll wipe out the rest, too.”
“But we only got permission from Thailand.”
“That’s because they’re special allies. The others? We don’t even need to ask.”
Korea dispatched 300 elite special forces troops from the Special Warfare Command to Thailand. They crossed borders into Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos, launching indiscriminate raids on opium fields.
Handpicked from Korea’s special forces units, this joint strike team racked up impressive kills.
Korean troops marched an average of 50 kilometers a day through the jungle, hitting cartel strongholds with pinpoint accuracy.
Intel came from satellites, aerial recon, and paid-off locals.
“Burn it all.”
After raiding cartel operations, Korean forces torched entire farms.
What about the jungle catching fire?
“No biggie!”
It was illegal military action, but Korea didn’t care.
“Who asked them to sell us drugs?”
Over 1,500 cartel members were summarily executed during the operations.
“They say if you sell drugs to Korea, the Korean military comes for revenge.”
Soon, rumors of Korea’s “shadow unit” spread like wildfire through the Golden Triangle.
Once the locals felt the sting of Korean retaliation firsthand, even Golden Triangle operators stopped taking drug sales to East Asia lightly.
“One bad deal and we could lose our heads.”
Mess up, and the Koreans might come gunning for you.
With that tense atmosphere brewing, Korea sent Agency for National Security Planning agents to parley with the cartels.
“No exports to East Asia, and we stay out of your production business.”
“What if our buyers ship it that way?”
“Then that’s on you for picking the wrong customers.”
Wary of Korea’s special forces—backed by satellites, aircraft, and helicopters—the cartels accepted the compromise.
Of course, no one in Pyongyang seriously expected this deal to completely seal off drug shipments to Korea.
The world was lousy with drug production sites beyond the Golden Triangle.
Even nearby China had production spots scattered everywhere.
“If we can just cut down the imports, that’s victory enough.”
Expecting more was unrealistic.
After pressuring overseas production sites, Korea urged addicts to turn themselves in.
It was a strategy to wipe out both dealers and the market in one go.
“Turn yourself in now, and we’ll go easy—treatment and protective custody only.”
With the new drug law passing that mandated death for possessing certain quantities, addicts had no real choice.
“Let’s turn ourselves in.”
Not every addict surrendered, of course, but the blow to the drug market was devastating.
After dealing with addicts came cooperation with neighboring countries.
Cooperation in name only—it was basically Korean Narcotics Control Agency officers crossing borders and exercising jurisdiction.
“Narcotics Control Agency! Get down!”
“It’s those guys. The devil Koreans are here!”
The Korean Narcotics Control Agency had a hellish reputation in Japan and China.
They shot up the place as a matter of course and dragged suspects back to Korea.
To drug gangs, “Narcotics Control Agency” was synonymous with the Grim Reaper.
Any outfit with ties to Korea could expect the agency to kick in the door.
With intel support from the Agency for National Security Planning’s nationwide surveillance net, they crushed any suspicious group without mercy.
Watching the agency in action, people wondered.
“How much money are they making to run ops like that overseas?”
“A ton.”
From day one, the Narcotics Control Agency got 5,000 staff and an annual budget of 1.5 billion won.
And that was just the start.
Thanks to special government favoritism, they could expand personnel and budget as needed.
“They’re dead set on nabbing every drug crook.”
That’s how hard the Korean government went after drug supply lines.
And that was it?
“No way.”
Korea also tightened surveillance on officially distributed psychotropics and narcotic precursors domestically.
“You want us to report lists of suspicious patients to the government? Come on.”
“Don’t wanna do business?”
Hospitals, pharmacies—every medical outlet got watched.
“Vet clinics, too.”
“Why vets?”
“Plenty of junkies using animal meds.”
Unaware of the multilayered scrutiny, addicts trying to score precursors at pharmacies or hospitals ended up on watchlists every time.
“That’s how you round ’em all up.”
The government applied strict standards to prescriptions, too.
“If a person can tough it out, no narcotics or psychotropics.”
“Huh?”
Korea built thick walls against drugs like that, while demanding tough action from trade partners.
“If we find more than a certain amount of drugs in shipments to Korea, we’ll deem your quarantine process faulty and halt customs clearance.”
“That’s too much.”
“Sell somewhere else, then.”
Korea could flex like that.
Thanks to its status as the world’s number-two superpower.
Trade partners couldn’t afford to get booted from the massive EA market, so they had to step up customs scrutiny.
Even as some grumbled about the trade friction, voices emerged.
“But isn’t our government overreacting to drugs?”
When that buzz spread, Bae Seong-jun commissioned a drug-awareness program.
“We should produce something showing the harms of narcotics.”
“Got it.”
KBC aired a documentary on the daily lives of zombie-like addicts, per government request.
Filmed in the United States.
“Drugs. Mommy, drugs.”
KBC’s doc on the human wreckage of addiction contained zero propaganda.
The raw truth was horrific enough.
Koreans were shocked.
“Addiction turns people into that?”
Textbooks got detailed drug coverage, too.
“To avoid ending up like the Qing Dynasty, ruined by opium, we must seal off narcotics tight.”
Qing Dynasty.
No one was ignorant enough not to know how the Qing fell.
“Yeah. Block drugs or become the next Qing.”
Now, most people backed the government’s hardline stance.
Of course, cracking down on drugs didn’t save everyone spiraling down.
“Drugs? Like there’s no fun without ’em.”
Alternatives were everywhere.
Bond, butane gas—everyday stuff could sub in.
“Ahh, that hits. This is it.”
No matter how controlling the government, they couldn’t block everything.
“Isn’t that worse than drugs?”
“Don’t care.”
Pleasure-seekers flocked to drug proxies like moths to flame.
‘Still, losses we can live with.’
Korea figured it could stomach that much.
Compared to rival America, Korean addicts numbered barely one-hundredth as many.
And that figure kept dropping.
The government touted its War on Drugs victories in regular policy reports.
“The Republic’s drug-free status remains ironclad.”
The Bae Seong-jun regime’s War on Drugs triumphs.
The biggest ripple wasn’t in Korea.
It was in America, fighting its own drug war.
“This isn’t working. We need to move like Korea.”
Move like Korea.
Washington, staring at its own stubborn addict numbers, took note.
“Hit them at the source, Korean-style.”
America decided to model its victories by intervening directly in Central and South America.