Man sentenced to 20 years in prison for using crypto to launder drug money

A Gen Z drug trafficker has been sentenced to 20 years in prison after authorities found that he used crypto as a money laundering and payment tool in a narcotics distribution network worth $4 million.

The kingpin was sentenced at the Ulsan District Court, where prosecutors accused the kingpin and his gang of smuggling drugs into the country using international courier services and making sales via the Telegram chat app. He was also fined $4.2 million.

“It is difficult for police to crack down on the import of drugs through international parcel delivery,” Presiding Judge Park Jeong-hong said in sentencing. “This scourge is spreading rapidly, so we need to punish offenders severely. These are highly antisocial crimes. They demand very heavy punishments.”

Drug dealers use Telegram as a drug department store

According to reports, Korean-language Telegram channels have become “narcotics department stores” for young South Koreans, who pay for drug deliveries in Bitcoin and other crypto assets. The court heard that the unnamed man started selling drugs online in March 2020. He recruited a gang of associates who helped him run multiple Telegram drug sales channels.

The channels sold synthetic marijuana, marijuana, LSD, and methamphetamine, mainly smuggled from Vietnam. The gang used crypto to launder its funds and paid its distributors a 10% commission on all successful deliveries.

The kingpin used a nationwide network of smaller-scale drug dealers to perform “dead drops,” or leaving bags of drugs hidden in public places and then sending pickup instructions to their buyers. Prosecutors revealed that between March 2022 and May 2023 alone, the gang dropped off almost 12,000 deliveries of over 7,000 kilograms of methamphetamine pills.

The court stated that the kingpin had developed a model that other drug dealers were now following. “The illegal distribution of drugs has become more sophisticated and active,” said the judge. “Your actions are mass-producing new drug addicts and drug criminals.”

The court also handed out jail sentences of between 30 months and three years to three of the kingpin’s acquaintances. All were found guilty of drug distribution and money laundering violations.

A year ago, South Korean authorities launched an investigation into the popular messaging app Telegram, amid allegations of the platform being used for the dissemination of illicit content. However, the authorities faced challenges in the investigation due to Telegram’s unwillingness to provide user account information to law enforcement agencies, both in South Korea and internationally.

So far, the country’s media regulator, the Korea Communications Standard Commission (KCSC) has added Telegram to its list of Foreign platform partners, allowing it to request the removal of illicit content such as narcotics information.

South Korea lifts a ban tied to laundering as criminal groups shift methods

South Korea’s Financial Services Commission (FSC) lifted the ban on corporate investments in cryptocurrencies, which had been tied to concerns about money laundering.

The final regulations will be published in January or February. Under the draft, legal entities will be allowed to allocate up to 5% of their shareholder equity to coins within the top 20 by market capitalization.

Stablecoins are not yet included in this list; a decision on them will be made later. According to Chainalysis, Stablecoins accounted for 84% of illicit transaction volume in 2025. This made stablecoins the most commonly used asset in illicit on-chain activity.

As reported by Cryptopolitan, investments will be permitted only through the country’s five largest regulated exchanges: Upbit, Bithumb, Korbit, INEX, and Coinone. 

Experts in anti-money laundering and investigators say that criminal groups see casino junkets and chip-cash cycles as safer than crypto. The warning comes after reports that Chinese nationals used casinos in Jeju and other regions of the country to clean up money they got from voice-phishing scams.

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