A police official is showing tools used in making of illegal drugs. [Yonhap Photo]

A 32-year-old unemployed university graduate chose to run a drug lab rather than to find a job to make a living. However, his sweet dream did not last long as his underground business was uncovered by police about ten months later.The man surnamed Hwang was arrested for manufacturing and selling 500 grams (17 ounces) of meth worth 1.6 billion won (1.4 million US dollars) from cold medicine, commonly found in drug stores, at his lab in Itaewon, a famous traveling spot in Seoul.Hwang, an art university graduate, gave up his furniture workshop to go for a more profitable underground business in May last year by self-educating himself to make methamphetamine commonly known as ice from the scratch. He used a simple method by mixing the cold medicine and chemicals to produce pseudoephedrine, the basic material for ice."Pseudoephedrine is a prohibited chemical but one can learn how to make it by looking up relevant books and information online," said a police official. A horrible smell would be created in the course of producing ice but Hwang fooled his neighbors by disguising his labor as a furniture workshop.Police expressed worries over the growing number of illegal workshops after uncovering several meth labs similar to Hwang's.Park Sae-jin = swatchsjp@gmail.com