338 people arrested in crackdown on illegal flyers advertising “discount touch rooms for female college students”

[Financial News] A group that had been mass-distributing illegal flyers advertising prostitution and similar services across downtown Seoul has been caught by police.
SMPA announced on the 11th that it arrested a total of 338 people in an intensive crackdown on the production and distribution of illegal flyers carried out over about five months, from July 21 to December 31 last year.
Police did not stop at punishing low-level distributors. They also conducted a planned investigation that tracked brokers, printing operators, and associated businesses, focusing on cutting off the overall distribution network for illegal flyers.
In particular, the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Morals Crime Investigation Team expanded its probe around printing operators who produced the illegal flyers, middlemen brokers, and linked establishments, arresting 15 people.
During the investigation, officers confirmed that illegal flyers in the Gangnam area, which had virtually disappeared after a large-scale crackdown in 2024, had begun circulating again from last July. They went on to arrest seven additional suspects, including flyer distributors, nightlife business operators, and printing operators, and seized more than 450,000 flyers. The distributors turned out to be individuals who had already been arrested in the previous crackdown.
Local police stations and mobile patrol units also arrested seven distributors of illegal flyers through on-site crackdowns. In addition, 316 people who had illegally attached advertisements to streetlights, utility poles, and similar structures were subject to penalty notices, including fines or summary judgments.
Police also took administrative measures. They sent official letters requesting cooperation in eradicating the production of illegal flyers to printing associations and cooperatives, and blocked 1,057 phone numbers used in illegal advertisements to increase the effectiveness of sanctions.
The impact of the crackdown is visible in the numbers. According to the Gangnam-gu Office, 41,045 illegal flyers were collected in the Gangnam District in 2025, a 38.2% decrease from 66,423 during the same period a year earlier. Street cleaners also report that “with far fewer sexually explicit flyers littering the streets, cleaning has become noticeably easier.”
An SMPA official noted, “Because the statutory penalties for illegal flyers are not very high, offenders often fail to recognize the seriousness of the crime and tend to reoffend,” adding, “Given their close links to prostitution, illegal lending, and unlawful pharmaceutical activities, we will continue to carry out sustained crackdowns.”
jyseo@fnnews.com Seo Ji-yoon Reporter