90-year-old woman jailed for laundering son's drug money in South Korea

A 90-year-old woman in South Korea has been sentenced to a year in jail for laundering over 350 million won of her son's drug trafficking profits. The unnamed woman transferred a total of 386 million won ($260,800) on nine occasions between April 2020 and February 2022, following her son's directions, according to an Incheon court. Her son, known as Song, has been imprisoned in Cambodia since 2020 after being convicted of trafficking methamphetamine.

The court noted that the woman was aware of the illicit nature of the funds, as she had visited Cambodia five times in 2019 and knew of her son's detention. Judge Wi Eun-suk stated, "Her actions made it harder to trace illicit profits and contributed to the spread of narcotics, rendering the offence particularly serious." The court considered her age and lack of prior drug-related convictions when determining her sentence.

South Korean authorities are reportedly seeking to extract Song from Cambodia, where he is serving his sentence. Song has also allegedly implicated his daughter, who faced trial for receiving over 600 million won of illicit funds but was acquitted due to insufficient evidence of her knowledge regarding the money's origins.