South Korea's customs service said Monday that it helped best trafficking of 8.8 tons of drugs in October in collaboration with international organizations and national agencies.

The global effort, led by the Korea Customs Services and code named CATalyst, was carried out from Oct. 10 through Oct. 30 and disrupted illegal drugs being moved across borders.

The clampdown received official endorsement from the World Customs Organization, which set up an operational command post at its headquarters in Brussels to monitor and coordinate various operations.

Five international agencies, including the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and 94 national customs services confiscated 1,132 kilograms of new narcotics, such as kaht, and more conventional drugs, like cocaine, the KCS said.

Cocaine uncovered by authorities totaled 6,263.11 kilograms, making it the single largest item busted by authorities. The bulk of the cocaine detected came from authorities that intercepted the movement of the drug from Peru to Turkey.

"The amount of cocaine uncovered is enough to be used by some
200 million people at once," the KCS said.

Authorities in Jordan ferreted out a large shipment of captagon pills, which is an illegal substance used as an aphrodisiac, it said. Spain, Hungary, Ukraine and Belgium also worked in concert to grab 103 kilograms of methamphetamine and a kilogram of the brand new alpha-PVP.

The Korean customs authority said that for its part, it unearthed 17.66 kilograms of drugs last month, up roughly twofold from the year before.

"The latest clampdown holds significance because South Korea took the lead and more concerted efforts have been undertaken to deal with new forms of illegal substances," the KCS said. It added more will be done in the future to deal with the movement of illegal drugs. (Yonhap)