MRE black market ring busted up
Now, I’ll admit that MREs are better than C-Rats and the old freeze-dried LRRP Meals, but the Meals Ready to Eat (we called them Meals Rejected by Ethiopians) certainly weren’t good enough to profit from, it seems to me. But Stars and Stripes reports that a South Korean black market MRE ring has been rounded up;
Police on Wednesday charged 51 South Koreans for illegally selling imported food and violating the country’s Food Safety Act, a department spokesman said. No Americans were arrested, and the spokesman said it would be impossible to track them down.
According to the spokesman, who spoke on the customary condition of anonymity, the department began tracking the ring after getting a tip in mid-April.
Since then, police have confiscated 50 boxes of MREs that were for sale in traditional outdoor markets across the country, including Seoul’s Namdaemun, Dongdaemun, Sincheon and Cheonggyecheon markets, and in the cities of Uijeongbu, Dongducheon, Incheon and Bucheon. Police believe MREs — each packaged in a plastic casing that says “US Government Property Commercial Resale is Unlawful” — are being sold in other cities across the country as well.
“Some people said they like the MREs because they taste really good,” the spokesman said.
Well, maybe compared to kim-chi they taste good.
Category: Politics
I gotta say, the pound cake is pretty damn good with a cup of coffee, but the pasta in marinara looks like someone ate a ketchup covered candle and puked it back up. I’m just sayin’.
Oh come on now! Kim-chi isn’t that bad. It’s an aquired taste I guess.
Anyone here ever explode a peanut butter can on the tent stove?
I have a case for emergencies–like when ice storms take out the power for two weeks, little stuff like that. And no, they’re not ones with the Illegal for Resale–thanks for that one, Bill.
I’ve got some for emergencies and short hikes. They’re good to toss in a day pack when I don’t want to haul all my other crap. Long range I stick with Mountain House and such because oh god are they heavy.
I was always kinda partial to the dehydrated pork patty myself……….
In ROTC Basic, we had a running bet that you couldn’t eat the cracker then whistle at the same time. Last time I heard, the pot was around $2000.
2 years ago, my girlfriend and her Marine hubby miscalculated how soon they would get their tax refund and ended up with literally no money for a week (they spent what money they had to buy baby food for their 2 yo daughter) and he brought home a box of MREs… She actually liked it… I guess, if you are new to MREs, it’s somewhat edible…
Well I loved the freeze-dried LRRPs. Especially the beef & rice. Beat the heck out of the C-Rats. As a newbie going through incountry indoctrination the 1st Cav prided itself on telling us we would receive at the minimum of one hot meal a day. LOL, they failed to divulge thet we woul have to cook it on C-4 or heat tabs and that it would be a LRRP. They weren’t too bad after a while. Sometimes much better than the chow served on the firebases with the cooks sweat dripping and chopper dust in those meals. Plus the light weight of the LRRPs were an added advantage as you could just mix in stream/pothole water that you didn’t need to hump. Of course it was necessary to treat the h2o if you didn’t want to get sick. Amazing how fast a pinch of c-4 will boil a canteen cup of h20.
I don’t know about MREs , but if you go into REA and buy dehydrated food it is very expensive. There was a sort of black market for LRRPS since they were a lot lighter and somewhat better than the crap we were carrying.
Korea has a Food Safety Act??? Have they ever looked at downtown Tongduchon?
I don’t know which is worse the fact that I didn’t need the phonetic spellings to know how to say those towns and shopping markets or that I have actually shopped at some of them. By the way there is a whole section of Namdaemun that we used to refer to as Black Market Alley. Great place to pick up that missing or replace damaged TA-50 gear.
I always loved trading my MRE’s for some Ramen with cheese while in the field. We loved Ajuma.
Whoa Jonn! Kimchee is a staple in my diet and I’d rather have Kimchee as a side dish anyday over the “fortified peanut butter” or “jalapeno cheese”.
Jonn wrote: They taught me in JOTC that if something tastes bad and smells bad it’ll probably kill you.
Kim-chee? I make it about twice a year. Love it.
Gross food? Should have compared it to a Filipino “balut”. Now, that’s gross.
Used to keep a box around the house. A live in girlfriend used them all up for lunch. This was before the heating pouch. She would pour them into a pot over the stove, said they tasted good. Guess us dumb Soldiers don’t know how to appreciate good food.
The rate of exchange during Team Spirit 89 was 1 MRE would get you a bowl of noodles, a Coke and a moon pie. How the hell mamasan humped that case of Cokes and moon pies to the top of that hill was always a mystery.