Turning Burner SIMs and Knife Training... 'Hybrid Gangsters' Arrested in the City

[Financial News] A gang operating in the southwestern region of Seoul, combining dormitory management, hierarchical violence, and underground economy-type illegal businesses, has been caught by the police. The organization was found to have engaged in so-called 'project-type business crimes' such as money laundering, illegal SIM distribution, and prostitution mediation.
The Seoul Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit Criminal Task Force announced on the 16th that they arrested 39 members of the gang, including the action leader Mr. B of Organization A, for violating laws related to violent acts (Article 4), special robbery, special property damage, and aiding and abetting criminals from 2018 to early this year. Nine of them are currently detained.
Organization A was brought into the investigation net when the police, tracking a suspect in a special robbery case that occurred in October 2023, discovered a dormitory used as a hideout. The police identified the organization's structure through a year-long analysis of the organization and trend tracking, executing arrest warrants, and gradually apprehended most of the members by last month.
According to the police, Organization A was initially formed by individuals from middle and high school violence circles in the 1980s, expanding their influence through extortion from entertainment establishments and managing escort services. As the original leaders stepped down, members born in the 1980s became the core, expanding their activities into online-based underground economy crimes such as setting up gambling sites, money laundering, and illegal SIM distribution.
The organization housed new recruits in dormitories, teaching them over 20 behavioral codes, repeatedly training them in obedience and loyalty to strengthen organizational power. The codes included threats like "Defectors will have their fingers cut off," and some teenage members even trained in weapon use in a vacant lot near the dormitory. Organization A was also found to have formed an 'emergency strike team' equipped with steel pipes and weapons to demonstrate power in conflicts with other organizations.
These organizations exhibited a 'hybrid gang' structure with an illegal business operation system managed by individual leaders rather than a single command system. The police explained, "While based on violence, the leaders managed their own items and mobilized lower organizations to commit project-type crimes."
A representative from the Metropolitan Investigation Unit Criminal Task Force stated, "The crimes of intelligent gangsters are difficult to apprehend and the sentences are light, making it essential to eradicate the organizations behind them," adding, "Strict punishment against them will have a deterrent effect, preventing the inflow of young generations into the organizations."
Meanwhile, the police plan to continue investigating individual crimes such as gambling site operations, prostitution mediation, and illegal SIM distribution involving Organization A.
425_sama@fnnews.com Choi Seung-han Reporter