People wearing face masks walk across the street near Yongsan Station in Seoul, South Korea, July 8, 2021. South Korea reported its highest-ever daily COVID-19 cases Thursday, leading the health authorities to officially announce that the country entered the fourth wave of the pandemic.Photo:Xinhua

 Smuggled drugs caught by the South Korean authorities nearly tripled in the first half of the year, as contactless smuggling through international mail and express cargo jumped amid the protracted COVID-19 pandemic, customs office data showed Thursday.

Smuggled drugs, confiscated by the customs agency, reached 214.2 kg in the January-June period, up 153 percent from the same period of last year, according to the Korean Customs Service.

It came as the drug smuggling via contactless delivery means, such as international mail and express cargo, surged amid the prolonged pandemic, the customs office said.

The number of drug confiscation cases smuggled via the non-contact means jumped to 605, or about 91 percent of the total detected cases, in the first half from 158 tallied a year earlier.

The amount of confiscated methamphetamine spiked 77 percent over the year to 43.5 kg in the first half. It equals to drugs that can be administered to some 1.45 million people.

The number of spotted cases to smuggle methylene dioxymetham-phetamine (MAMD), also known as ecstasy, and lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) roughly tripled in the six-month period, but the reading for hemp confiscation cases declined 10 percent due to the falling number of travelers amid the pandemic.

The customs office said international drug rings continued to smuggle over 1 kg of methamphetamine into South Korea in the first half, noting that drug trafficking from the western region of the US was on the rise.

It added that the cases of young people purchasing small amounts of drugs via social media platforms and the dark web have increased, which can be delivered through international mail and express cargo.