South Korea breaks up network of 100 illegal Vietnamese immigrants

South Korean media reported on February 24 that the International Crime Prevention Team of the Busan Police Department, the second largest port city in southern South Korea, had broken up a ring that planned to bring 100 Vietnamese people illegally into South Korea by sea.

The arrested subjects include S (the ring leader, 60 years old), O (broker, 52 years old) and K (broker, 55 years old).

In addition, Busan police also issued an arrest warrant for investigation (not detention but release on bail) of subject K (broker, 57 years old) and issued an international arrest warrant for J (broker, 35 years old, believed to be residing in Vietnam).

South Korean police force. (Source: AP)

According to police investigation, S is a wanted subject because he had previously used a small fishing boat (about 10 tons) to illegally bring 100 Chinese people into Korea by sea, while K was the mastermind in the case of illegally bringing 9 Koreans into Japan by high-speed submarine in March last year.

Following S's instructions, on March 17, 2015, O and two others flew from Incheon International Airport to Vietnam to meet and discuss plans with Vietnamese brokers.

Accordingly, the Vietnamese brokers received 8 million won (about 6,600 USD) from each of the 100 Vietnamese victims and promised to help them illegally escape to South Korea by safe sea route.

Since mid-May last year, these subjects had contracted to rent a cargo ship for 8,000 USD and planned to pick up the 100 people at a small port in central Vietnam and then go straight to a small port in South Korea, but were discovered and arrested by the police.

Busan police also said that these subjects were quite confident when they had meticulously planned to smuggle a large number of people into Korea at the same time. If the plan was successful, with the 800 million won (about 660,000 USD) collected from the victims, after deducting expenses such as renting ships, sailors, fuel... they would still pocket more than 600 million won.

According to Vietnam+