South Korean police said Thursday they have arrested five Pakistanis over illegal cash transfers worth millions of dollars, including payments from Afghanistan's Taliban for materials for heroin production. The five are accused of operating two "hawala" money transfer networks in South Korea since 2005, police said, adding that 53 other hawala brokers including Koreans have been charged but not detained.
Police say the informal hawala networks, widely used in the Middle East, provide a fast and convenient way to transfer money both for illegal foreign workers and terrorists. "They have set up phoney firms or acted as traders here to cover up their underground operations," Kim Ki-Hun, an investigator, told AFP.
The total sum illegally transferred by the two networks is about 100 billion won (75 million dollars), including 50,000 dollars sent by Taliban insurgents, he said.
"In co-operation with Interpol, we have been hunting for 140 others believed to be involved in the networks," Kim said. He said the hunt began in July when nine people including one Afghan and two Pakistanis were arrested in South Korea for allegedly trying to smuggle tons of chemicals for heroin production to Taliban insurgents.
Police confiscated 12 tons of acetic anhydride destined for Afghanistan. The chemical is heated along with morphine, an opium derivative, to make heroin. At that time police said about 50 tons of the chemical had already been shipped to Afghanistan between April last year and March this year. It was labelled as disinfectant.