The woman was helping her son launder drug revenues while he was in prison in Cambodia. The court's one-year prison term took into consideration her age and clean record prior to the laundering.
https://p.dw.com/p/5C8PrSeveral South Koreans have been arrested in Cambodia, like the defendant's son, for various crimes [FILE: Oct, 18, 2025]Image: Hwawon Ceci Lee/Anadolu/picture allianceAdvertisementA South Korean court has sentenced a 90-year-old woman to one year in jail for helping her jailed son launder drug proceeds, the Korea Herald reported.
The son is a trafficking ringleader currently in Cambodian jail.
The Incheon District Court ordered the defendant to forfeit the 386 million won (roughly $260,000, €220,000) she had laundered on behalf of her son.
The court said the defendant knowingly received and transferred funds linked to narcotic crimes. Prosecutors say she received the 386 million won from unidentified individuals on nine occasions between April 2020 and February 2022, before transferring the funds to bank accounts designated to her son.
The 60-something year-old son was arrested in Cambodia in July 2020 on charges including methamphetamine possession, the Korea Herald reported. He remains imprisoned there, and investigators believe his drug trafficking operations continued during his incarceration.
"The defendant accepted illegal proceeds while being aware of circumstances indicating their connection to drug-related offenses," the judge said of the mother, noting the severe social harm caused by narcotics crimes and the need for strict punishment.
The court found evidence contradicting the woman's claim that she was unaware of the nature of her crime when committing it, noting she had visited Cambodia five times in 2019 and was informed by phone of her son's detention there.
"Her actions made it harder to trace illicit profits and contributed to the spread of narcotics, rendering the offense particularly serious," the judge added.
However, when deciding on a sentence, the court took into account the woman's age and lack of any prior drug-related convictions.
