South Korea Jails Mom, 90, for Laundering Son's Drug Profits

A South Korean court has handed a 90-year-old woman a one-year prison term for helping her son move suspected drug money, a case that has drawn attention for the defendant's age as well as the crime, reports the BBC. The woman, whose name was not released, was found to have received roughly $261,000 over nine transfers between April 2020 and February 2022, then passed the money into an account specified by her son, identified only as Song. "The defendant accepted illegal proceeds while being aware of circumstances indicating their connection to drug-related offenses," Judge Wi Eun-suk said, per the Straits Times.

Song has been jailed in Cambodia since 2020 for smuggling methamphetamine there. The Incheon court said her multiple trips to Cambodia in 2019 and her awareness of his detention meant she should have known the cash was criminal in origin. Wi said her actions hindered efforts to track illegal profits and aided the spread of narcotics, calling the crime "particularly serious," though the court factored in her age and clean record when setting the sentence. Authorities in South Korea are seeking Song's extradition. His daughter was separately tried over more than $408,000 in alleged drug proceeds but was acquitted due to a lack of proof she knew the money was tied to trafficking.