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The Korea Customs Service (KCS) said Thursday that two new kinds of narcotics, narcotic mushrooms and 2C-B, have been intercepted while smugglers were attempting to sneak them into Korea this year. An official at the customs office said they had uncovered 111 cases of drug smuggling this year, and three types of drugs, including narcotic mushrooms, were found for the first time in Korea.
According to the KCS, Seoul Main Customs found narcotic mushrooms containing psilocybin, a narcotic substance much stronger than methamphetamine, in a parcel of international mail sent from Canada in November.
The mushrooms, mainly cultivated in North and Central America, have traditionally been used as hallucinogens in the religious ceremonies of Mexican Indians. The other drug, 2C-B, dubbed "Venus" or "Eve" in Europe, was first caught by Incheon Main Customs on December 6.
The KCS said the main channel for smuggling drugs is shifting. Smuggling through airports and harbors, which constituted 49 percent of the uncovered drug-trafficking incidents in 2003, dropped to 31 percent this year, whereas smuggling through international postal services and expedited freight services soared from 44 percent in 2003 to 59 percent this year.
(englishnews@chosun.com )
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