Police have requested a warrant for the pretrial detention of a prosecution investigator who is suspected of being the first figure to leak information on a drug probe into late actor Lee Sun-kyun. 

The Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police said Monday that it requested the warrant last Thursday for the investigator who works for the Incheon District Prosecutors’ Office, accusing the investigator of leaking confidential information related to official business. 

The investigator allegedly told an acquaintance, who is a reporter for the Gyeonggi Sinmun newspaper based in Gyeonggi Province, that the actor was being investigated by police over his alleged use of illegal drugs. 

The Gyeonggi Sinmun had released an exclusive report on October 19 of last year that said a top star was being investigated on drug charges. 

Police came to suspect the investigator's involvement in the process of probing how the paper got to cover the story on Lee, who was later found dead in an apparent suicide last December after undergoing three rounds of intense police questioning.