Seoul police bust Dongdaemun gang as organized crime group, arrest 40

A rally held by the gang in July 2024 [Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit]

Seoul police have identified a violent criminal organization operating in the city and arrested dozens of its members.

The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit said Thursday it had arrested 40 people — 21 members of the Dongdaemun gang and 19 members of affiliated organizations — on charges of violating the Punishment of Violent Acts Act for forming and participating in a violent crime organization. Of those arrested, 14, including the gang's operations chief identified only as A, were detained, and 32 — including all 21 Dongdaemun gang members and 11 members of an allied group — were referred to prosecutors.

According to police, A and others recruited 16 new members between 2017 and February by targeting young men from local middle and high schools who had been known as the toughest fighters — called "jjang," a slang term for the dominant fighter in a school — in their schools. Recruiters told them: "We are a legitimate organization with roots going back to Chairman Lee Jung-jae after liberation. If you're going to walk around with tattoos, do it properly."

Newly recruited members lived in safe houses in Seoul and Incheon, where a mid-level officer serving as house leader trained them in obedience to seniors, loyalty to the organization and how to evade law enforcement. Police said the recruits were groomed as gang members by learning the group's hierarchy and codes of conduct while being drawn into acts of violence.

Once trained, members were deployed as a human backdrop — known as a "byeongpung," or folding screen — at allied gang events to project the organization's power, and served as a rapid-response strike force that could be summoned at a moment's notice to clash with rival groups. Members were required to tattoo the gang's name in hanja on the center of their chests. Police also confirmed a case in which a member who broke the rules was beaten by a senior and suffered dental injuries.

The investigation found that members had participated in multiple acts of group violence on orders from their seniors. In December 2020, they brawled with members of a local criminal organization in Ingye-dong, Suwon, Gyeonggi Province. In September 2023, they chased down and assaulted a rival gang member in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, Seoul, causing injury.

Then in February, when a dispute broke out at a restaurant in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, the gang mobilized members from three allied organizations, with about 50 people facing off in a mass brawl. Members called one another in through a shared communications network.

Proving the case as organized crime

The code of conduct of the gang [Provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency Metropolitan Investigation Unit]

Police said they launched the investigation after obtaining footage of the September 2023 Nonhyeon-dong assault, and confirmed the organization's true nature while tracking members' activities.

The investigation established that the Dongdaemun gang was formed in 1996 by street toughs in the Dongdaemun area who claimed to be carrying on the legacy of "Lee Jung-jae's Dongdaemun unit." The group had since committed a range of crimes — including extorting street vendors, interfering in reconstruction projects and carrying out group assaults — and had been arrested multiple times, but had always been prosecuted only for individual offenses and had never been formally designated a violent crime organization.

In this investigation, police confirmed that both past crimes and recent activities were carried out continuously by the same organization. They applied the charge of forming and operating a violent crime organization after comprehensively establishing that the group met the legal criteria — including continuity, cohesion, a clear hierarchy, division of roles, a code of conduct and communal living arrangements.

Under Article 4 of the Punishment of Violent Acts Act, a group formally designated as a violent crime organization faces sentences of seven years or more for leaders and two years or more for ordinary members. Joining or participating in such an organization is itself a punishable offense, and any future crimes committed by members can be prosecuted with enhanced penalties as organized crime. Police said the designation also enables ongoing monitoring of the group, which is expected to have a deterrent effect.

Police said they have found evidence that the Dongdaemun gang maintains alliances with other criminal organizations in Seoul, mobilizes members for group violence when needed, and has been involved in underground economy crimes including voice phishing, investment advisory room operations and personal data trafficking. Those investigations are continuing.

Police said they plan to expand their investigation into individual crimes by Dongdaemun gang members — including fundraising, running investment advisory rooms and selling personal data — and intend to arrest two members currently abroad through international law enforcement cooperation.

"We will continuously strengthen intelligence gathering and investigations into violent crime organizations to prevent young people who romanticize gang life from being drawn into organized crime," a police official said.

newday@heraldcorp.com