The police caught 12 suspects, five men in their 20s, and two males and five females in their teens, for allegedly extorting 220 million won ($165,000) from men they lured into sexual contact with minors.
Ansan Sangrok Police Station apprehended the suspects on April 23 for extorting money from 11 men they baited into drinking and having sexual contact with female minors. The victims of the extortion claim that they did not know they were minors, Gyeonggi Nambu Provincial Police Agency said on Tuesday.
Detention warrants for seven males were issued on April 25. Three of the minors had no permanent residence, making it harder to track them down, the police explained to local media.
The suspects played different roles in deceiving and threatening their victims over a period of five months starting in November, across several locations, including Incheon, Siheung, Gyeonggi Province, North Chungcheong and North Jeolla Provinces.
The suspects lured the victims through an anonymous open chatroom on Kakao Talk under the topic of "drink together," a chatroom in which a male decoy and two minor females were participating, according to the police.
While playing games together in a motel room, the decoy persuaded the victim to touch or even have sexual intercourse with the minor girls.
Other male accomplices would then break into the motel room, declaring that the girls were minors.
The male suspects claimed they were the minors’ older brothers or guardians and demanded money in exchange for not reporting the incident to the police.
CCTV footage revealed by the police also shows how the decoy would guide the victims to kneel in front of the threatening individuals and transfer money, following their demands.
The police are investigating the possibility of additional crimes by looking into suspects’ bank accounts, while also determining whether the minor girls were intimidated into participating in the schemes.
