Four Filipino sailors accused of smuggling nearly one-thousand-700 kilograms of cocaine through Okgye Port in Gangneung, Gangwon Province, have been sentenced to prison.

The Gangneung branch of the Chuncheon District Court handed a 25-year prison sentence to one of the two crew members for violating the Act on the Aggravated Punishment of Specific Crimes. The other crew member received 15 years.

The two Filipinos were found guilty of concealing approximately one-thousand-690 kilograms of cocaine, in 56 packs, on a vessel without the captain’s knowledge, after obtaining the drugs from boats near Peru, from drug cartel members operating in Latin America, in early February.

Two additional crew members received seven-year prison sentences for aiding and abetting the crime. Prosecutors said the sailors had failed to alert the vessel’s captain to the presence of the drugs on board.

In issuing its verdict, the court said the latest case is the most severe drug-smuggling in the nation's criminal justice system.

The vessel entered Okgye Port on April 2 after passing through Dangjin Port in South Chungcheong Province and two ports in China.

Police and customs officials found the cocaine on board after receiving intelligence that a vessel sent to enter the port was carrying the drug.