The number of drug offenders caught by the prosecution has surged by more than 60 percent since the prosecution regained its authority to directly investigate drug crimes. 

According to the Justice Ministry on Sunday, the prosecution caught one-thousand-127 drug offenders for about a year since September 2022, up 62-point-four percent from a year earlier. The prosecution indicted 304 people during the period, up 97-point-four percent on-year.

The ministry attributed the rise to the Yoon Suk Yeol government's efforts to restore the drug crime investigation system.

The ministry said that the prosecution's ability to respond to drug crimes had seriously weakened under the previous government, but the prosecution regained its authority to directly investigate drug crimes under the Yoon government and also created special investigation squads for narcotics in four high prosecutors' offices in Seoul, Incheon, Busan and Gwangju in February last year. 

The total number of drug offenders caught by the prosecution and police came to 27-thousand-611 last year, up 50-point-one percent from a year ago.