Two Korean Americans residing in Alaska have been indicted on charges of smuggling, money laundering, and sanctions evasion, causing widespread shock.
The U.S. Department of Justice announced the arrest and indictment of the two individuals, who face a total of 24 charges, on June 26. If convicted on all counts, they could face a minimum of 100 years in federal prison.
According to the U.S. Attorney for Alaska, the accused were caught attempting to send PEZ candies and dispensers and Pogs, to North Korea. The indicted individuals, born in South Korea, are naturalized U.S. citizens.
“We put our best people on this,” U.S. Attorney Lane Tucker said. “These foreign-born Americans were providing critical material support to the North Korean regime in violation of federal law, and we spared no expense at taking down this major international criminal conspiracy.”
The FBI, DEA, ATF, and other agencies jointly raided the suspects’ residences, seizing items during the operation, which involved over 50 federal agents, multiple K-9 units, and three armored vehicles. Agents did not retrieve any weapons, but did seize over $5 of PEZ candies and dispensers and $12.50 of Pogs, according to local newspaper Alaska Landmine.
The press conference saw numerous questions from reporters about the significance of these items.
Reagan Zimmerman, spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney, responded, “Look, who knows what those crafty North Koreans could make with our American-made sweets and children’s toys. Bombs, maybe?”
One of the accused reportedly stated, “My uncle still lives in North Korea. We were just trying to get him some things for his kids. Life is pretty rough there. I know we shouldn’t have tried to send them this stuff, but we just thought the federal government had better things to do.”
BY NICOLE CHANG, YOUNGNAM KIM [chang.nicole@koreadaily.com]
