South Korean student was caught using Bitcoin to buy marijuana in Japan and mail it back home

Xinhua News Agency reported that South Korea's "JoongAng Ilbo" reported that prosecutors are investigating a South Korean student who entered the country with marijuana, suspecting that the student used Bitcoin to buy about 150,000 won (about 140 US dollars) of drugs on the Internet.

The report quoted a person from the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office as saying that investigations showed that the 20-year-old international student purchased marijuana online and sent it to South Korea while staying in Japan last month.

The student said during the investigation by the prosecutors that he did it out of curiosity, and used Bitcoin to top up and trade through the online settlement service "Paypal". The report said that the prosecutors have taken samples from the student and commissioned an agency to conduct drug identification.

Relevant prosecutors said that intelligence shows that there are many cases of using Bitcoin to purchase drugs and smuggle them into the country. Because the market price of Bitcoin is very high, it is more often used in large-scale wholesale transactions.