| Netflix original series ‘Suriname’. (Netflix capture) |
According to Channel A on the 17th, Cho Bong-haeng, who is known as the real drug lord in the popular original series ‘Suriname’ based on a true story, died in 2016.
According to the report, as a result of checking with investigative agencies, Cho died on April 19, 2016 at a university hospital in Gwangju and was declared a soldier. The causes of death listed on the death certificate were heart failure and hypertension.
Cho, who was serving a sentence at Haenam Prison in Jeollanam-do before his death, had a decision to suspend the execution of his sentence due to worsening chronic diseases such as high blood pressure.
He is said to have died after being released from prison after a five-year stay of execution and receiving treatment at a university hospital. He was 64 years old at the time of his death.
Earlier, from the late 1990s to the early 2000s, Cho ran a large-scale drug-trafficking organization in Suriname, South America, and was dubbed the ‘drug kingpin’. In July 2009, he was arrested at São Paulo International Airport in Brazil after a coordinated operation between the National Intelligence Service and the US Drug Enforcement Agency.
He was sent to Korea in 2011, two years after his arrest, and was sentenced to 10 years in prison and fined 100 million won on charges of fraud and drug smuggling.
After that, Jo’s whereabouts were unknown. The director of ‘Suriname’ also mentioned, Yoon Jong-bin, “Neither the NIS nor the prosecution could tell me, so I didn’t ask more.”
Some media said he returned to Suriname after completing his sentence, but this is the first time news of his death has been confirmed in Korea.
Meanwhile, ‘Suriname’ tells the story of Jeon Yo-hwan (Hwang Jung-min), a Korean drug dealer who escaped to Suriname, a small country in South America, and became a foreign drug dealer, and a civilian businessman (Ha Jung -woo) put into the operation of an NIS agent (Park Hae-soo) who caught him.
Also, unlike the movie, in the actual case, it was reported that Ha Jung-woo had three civil servants instead of one.
Do Chun-seong, head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors Office, who was a prosecutor at the time, said in an interview with SBS, “Three people received personal assistance: Mr. A, Mr. B, and Mr. C. Mr. B and assisted the investigation.”
sby@newyddion1.kr
