The narcotics joint investigation division of South Korea's new Major Crimes Investigation Agency launched at the agency's Suwon district office with far fewer staff than the task force it replaced, and no official records have yet emerged showing how pending cases were handed over. Procedures for transferring cases nearing the statute of limitations, along with seized items and digital evidence, also remain undisclosed, raising concerns about gaps in investigations.
Data submitted to Rep. Seo Myung-ok of the People Power Party, a member of the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee, by the Korean National Police Agency and the Korea Customs Service showed that the division, launched on the 2nd, received only 20 police officers — one superintendent, four senior inspectors, seven inspectors and eight assistant inspectors — and one customs official. That is 40% fewer than the 33 police officers previously assigned to the narcotics joint investigation task force at the Suwon District Prosecutors' Office. The agency's organizational rules cap the number of seconded police officers at 20.
Customs staffing also fell. The Korea Customs Service had seconded one grade-7 and one grade-8 official to the task force since November last year, but recalled both when the reorganization took effect on Oct. 2. Only one grade-8 official has been confirmed for the new division, while a grade-7 posting remains at the planning stage. That has temporarily severed the hands-on expertise and overseas intelligence channels needed for investigations linking customs violations, smuggling and money laundering.
The central question is whether cases were formally inherited. When Seo's office asked the police agency for a list of cases the task force had been handling and their transfer status, the agency refused to provide it, saying it was "data the agency does not manage." The customs service also declined to answer, saying the matter fell outside its jurisdiction. The government disclosed earlier that the new agency would take over the task force's functions, but no official record has surfaced showing when or on what basis individual cases under investigation were transferred. Since the abolition of the prosecution service, cases are routed to the police, the Major Crimes Investigation Agency or the new Public Prosecution Office depending on the statute of limitations, how far the investigation has progressed and whether jurisdictions overlap — meaning records from the prosecutors who led the task force would be needed to determine whether individual cases were actually handed over.
Under the enforcement decree of the law establishing the agency, when another investigative body gives written notice that it is transferring a case, the agency must in principle reply within seven days on whether it will open an investigation. The number of such notices and replies would indicate whether the handover process for task force cases actually functioned, but those figures have not been released either.
The shortfall stands out given the size and record of the task force it replaced. The Suwon narcotics task force was a pan-government body of 86 officials from eight agencies — the prosecution service, the police, the customs service, the coast guard, the Korea Immigration Service, the National Intelligence Service, the Korea Financial Intelligence Unit and the Seoul Metropolitan Government. In its first six months, it booked 235 drug offenders and detained 109.
Ahead of the agency's launch, the government said it would create five joint investigation divisions, pledging to "run investigations tied directly to people's livelihoods, such as voice phishing and drugs, without disruption." It also said the Suwon narcotics division would conduct pan-government investigations with the police agency, the customs service and the immigration service. But only 20 police officers and one customs official have been confirmed, and with no data showing how cases were inherited, critics say a gap has opened between the government's account of seamless investigations and pan-government cooperation and what is actually in place.
"If a new organization is launched under the banner of pan-government joint investigation, the handover and handling of existing cases should be clearly tracked from the start," Seo said. "At the parliamentary audit, I will examine whether case-by-case transfer records and measures to prevent investigative gaps are actually working."
