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In South Korea, a 90-year-old woman was sentenced to a year in prison for helping her son launder drug trafficking profits.
The woman, unnamed in local media, received a total of 386 million won ($260,800; £192,800) on nine occasions between April 2020 and February 2022, which she transferred to a designated account under the direction of her son, an Incheon court heard.
His son, known as Song in reports, has been imprisoned in Cambodia since 2020, after being convicted of trafficking methamphetamine into the country.
Given that Song’s mother traveled to Cambodia five times in 2019 and knew when her son was being detained, she would be aware she was dealing with illicit funds, the court heard on Monday.
“His actions made it more difficult to pursue illicit profits and contributed to the spread of drugs, making the crime particularly serious,” Judge Wi Eun-suk of the Incheon District Court said Monday.
The court took into account the woman’s age in deciding her sentence, as well as the fact that she had no previous drug-related convictions.
South Korean authorities are seeking to extract Song from Cambodia, according to local reports.
Song, aged in his 60s, also allegedly implicated his daughter, the Seoul-based Kyunghyang newspaper reported.
His daughter was put on trial for receiving more than 600 million won in illicit funds and transferring 274 million won.
But she was later acquitted of money laundering after the court ruled there was not enough evidence to conclude she knew the money came from drug trafficking.
