Gang Arrested for Distributing Over 1,860 Child Sexual Exploitation Materials and Inducing Sign-Ups to Illegal Gambling Sites

Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency building exterior [Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Choyoung] A group that distributed thousands of illegal sexual videos, including child sexual exploitation materials, to recruit members for illegal gambling sites was arrested en masse by the police.

The Cyber Crime Investigation Unit of the Gyeonggi Southern Provincial Police Agency announced on the 14th that they arrested seven people, including a man in his 30s identified as A, who operated a social networking service (SNS) group chat room, on charges of violating the Act on the Protection of Children and Juveniles Against Sexual Abuse. Among them, five were detained, and the remaining two were booked without detention on the same charges.

According to the police, A and others are accused of operating SNS group chat rooms from November 2019 to March last year to promote illegal gambling sites, distributing 1,866 illegal sexual videos, including child sexual exploitation materials downloaded from 'n-beonbang' and overseas sites.

They induced membership by distributing sexual videos in the SNS group chat rooms and posting false verification posts claiming they made profits by betting according to information provided by the gambling sites.

Additionally, to evade investigation, they reportedly set up an office in China and used burner phones, repeatedly closing and reopening group chat rooms whenever reported for illegal activities.

In particular, after Telegram sexual exploitation chat rooms became a social issue last year, it was confirmed that they continued promoting illegal gambling sites by impersonating investment experts who predict cryptocurrency (Bitcoin) and stock price trends.

The police started an internal investigation based on tips from civic groups and arrested them by tracking tens of thousands of overseas IP addresses.

The seven members of the group reportedly received 2 to 5 million KRW monthly from the gambling site operators for promoting the illegal gambling sites using these methods.

The police plan to confiscate all criminal proceeds received from the illegal gambling site operators and continue the investigation to arrest the gambling site operators and recover the criminal proceeds.