Crackdown on organized crime rings begins

Last April, an executive of a shopping mall management company in Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul, mobilized about 10 gangsters and tried to oust renters from the shopping mall by violent means, police said Wednesday.

As the tenants refused to leave, the executive, only identified by his family name Cho, called 10 members of another organized crime ring to use violence against shoppers.

Cho mobilized the organized crime rings to replace the tenants with new ones with the aim of “receiving monthly rents in cash without key money” from the newcomers, which was more lucrative than previously done, a police officer said.

Gangwon provincial police said they arrested 19 gangsters from three organized crime rings on charges of extorting money from bars and “room salons” in Chuncheon under the pretext of protecting them, in September. They operated a money lending business without due registration with the authorities, the officer said.

The Samsan Police Station in Incheon nabbed 136 gangsters on charges of destroying facilities and violence in order to promote their interests with regard to local redevelopment projects and apartment sales.

Previously, organized crime rings mainly interfered in room salons, illegal game rooms and brothels. But they have recently begun to make inroads into construction, private money lending, distribution and entertainment, the police said.

In addition, they have expanded their businesses into the local stock market and M&As. They are seeking to advance to wherever they can make money such as insurance fraud and gambling via the Internet.

Police said that in the private money market, some gangsters pretended to be businessmen, and lent money at high interest rates holding stocks as security. By applying such high interest rates, they extorted money from the lenders, and the number of victims of such cases is increasing.

On Oct. 31, police launched an extensive crackdown on organized crime rings across the country Monday, which will continue through the end of December.

The National Police Agency set up special teams at 16 regional police agencies nationwide to arrest gangsters in a war against criminal gangs.

The move follows a series of recent corruption scandals and a lukewarm police response to violent crimes.