A 90-year-old woman in South Korea has been handed a one-year prison sentence for her involvement in laundering substantial sums of money derived from her son's drug trafficking activities.
According to court proceedings in Incheon, the elderly woman, whose identity has not been publicly disclosed, facilitated the laundering of approximately 386 million won (equivalent to $260,800 or £192,800). The illicit funds were transferred to her over nine separate occasions between April 2020 and February 2022, which she subsequently moved to a designated account as directed by her son.
Her son, identified in media reports only as Song, is currently serving a prison sentence in Cambodia following his 2020 conviction for trafficking methamphetamine into the country. The court noted that the mother had visited Cambodia five times in 2019 and was aware of her son's detention, indicating she should have recognized the funds as illicit.
"Her actions made it harder to trace illicit profits and contributed to the spread of narcotics, rendering the offence particularly serious," stated Judge Wi Eun-suk of the Incheon District Court during Monday's sentencing.
The court acknowledged the defendant's advanced age and lack of prior drug-related convictions as mitigating factors in determining the sentence. Meanwhile, South Korean authorities are reportedly working to extradite Song from Cambodia.
In a related development, Song's daughter was also brought to trial on charges of receiving over 600 million won in illicit funds and transferring 274 million won of that amount. However, she was acquitted of money laundering charges after the court found insufficient evidence to prove she had knowledge that the money originated from drug trafficking.