South Korean drug lord wanted by Interpol arrested in HCMC

Identified only by his last name Kim, the 47-year-old was arrested in the city Sunday and repatriated to South Korea on Tuesday, the South Korean Consulate General in HCMC confirmed via phone call.

He is accused of running a drug ring worth $5.3 million and supplying two other drug lords in the Philippines and Cambodia.

Kim'’s arrest is a result of three years of police cooperation between Vietnam and South Korea, South Korean National Police Agency (NPA) said in a Yonhap report.

Interpol considers them the biggest drug kingpins in Southeast Asia. The other two had already been arrested while Kim has been the subject of an Interpol red notice for supplying illegal substances, such as methamphetamine, since 2018.

"This is a great example of consistent police cooperation with Vietnamese authorities to arrest the person in charge of one of the biggest drug trafficking rings based in Southeast Asia," said Kang Ki-taek, director of Interpol and the International Investigative Assistance Division at the NPA, Yonhap reported.