"Prison Food Tastes Good These Days"... 'MZ Gangsters' Flaunting Wealth and Tattoos on SNS

"The prison food is delicious."

On the 7th, a young man covered in full-body tattoos said this while shirtless on a personal internet broadcast. The man, who said he had been to prison, answered questions from viewers curious about prison life during the broadcast. He said, "These days, the food given in prison is pretty good. The prison is a place where people live, so it's all the same," adding, "People with money buy medicine when they're sick and often buy delicious food with their prison money." On the same day, another internet broadcast featured four men who claimed to have lived as gangsters, showing off their organized crime lifestyle.

In their 20s and 30s, delinquents who flaunt rough behavior by posting photos of full-body tattoos on social networking services (SNS) are forming small-scale criminal organizations and acting like organized crime groups. Although their methods differ from traditional organized crime groups that threaten with weapons, extort money, and fight over interests, these groups are expanding their influence by engaging in crimes mainly online, such as operating illegal gambling sites. Prosecutors and police are closely monitoring them, referring to them as ‘MZ Jopok’ (MZ gangs).

Recently, Shin Mo (27), known as the ‘Rolls-Royce Man,’ who drove a Rolls-Royce while under the influence of drugs and hit a pedestrian, leaving the victim in a brain-dead state, was reported to have full-body tattoos and to have been active in a criminal organization called ‘MT5,’ composed of eight peers of the same age. Photos of Shin and MT5 members showing off their tattoos shirtless have been circulating online. Prosecutors who raided Shin’s house found bundles of cash exceeding 100 million won. Prosecutors believe Shin and MT5 operated illegal stock trading chat rooms and gambling sites.

According to police investigations, the MZ Jopok’s sources of income are mainly online, including cryptocurrency and stock trading chat rooms, online gambling, and voice phishing. For example, a recently arrested illegal gambling site operation group in Busan was managed solely through SNS by a 20-something leader named A. They laundered the 400 billion won illegal profits through cryptocurrency and used it to flaunt their wealth. A police official said, "The members communicated exclusively through SNS to manage the site and lived luxuriously, buying Lamborghinis and the Haeundae LCT complex with illegal profits."

The MZ Jopok operate as ‘point organizations’ that form and dissolve through SNS to commit crimes, making it difficult for investigative agencies to accurately grasp their scale or criminal activities. Traditional organized crime groups are managed by police through membership lists, but unless MZ Jopok join these traditional groups, they are not included in police management lists. Shin, the Rolls-Royce Man, was not on the police’s organized crime list. A detective chief at a metropolitan police station explained, "MZ Jopok like the Rolls-Royce Man differ from traditional gangs that gather under a boss with strict hierarchy and compete with other groups. Instead, ‘distributors’ lead groups of 3 to 4 members who come together for specific criminal purposes."

They do not hide their activities but actively publicize them online. They post photos or videos flaunting their wealth on SNS and write messages like "Send me a DM (direct message)." They recruit youths who voluntarily contact them, expanding their influence. They lure youths with tattoos and gambling. Seung Jae-hyun, a senior researcher at the Korea Institute of Criminology and Justice Policy, said, "Youth with poor judgment may see MZ Jopok boasting on YouTube and SNS as celebrities or popular YouTubers and fall into their trap without resistance, stepping into crime."

There are calls for swift and nationwide crackdowns before the MZ Jopok’s influence grows further. Researcher Seung said, "It is necessary to accurately identify the routes to becoming MZ Jopok and fundamentally block their expansion." A police official said, "We are closely monitoring the SNS activities of MZ Jopok and will actively crack down on their acts of solidarity and illegal activities led through SNS."