33 rooms, 2,800 acts: How a Gangnam sex ring hid in plain sight

Police have busted two large prostitution operations in the Nonhyeon-dong neighborhood of Gangnam-gu, Seoul, where operators rented 33 studio apartments in residential buildings and converted them into venues. At one of the establishments, investigators estimate roughly 2,800 sexual transactions took place over about 40 days.

The operators used the proceeds to live lavishly — renting high-end officetels and driving luxury foreign cars — but could not escape prosecution after a former associate reported them to police.

The Seoul Gangnam Police Station said Tuesday it would refer eight people to prosecutors without detention, including three operators who ran the large-scale prostitution businesses in the Gangnam area, on charges of commercial prostitution brokering. Also being referred are one accomplice who served as a nominal front operator, two male clients and two female workers.

Police opened the investigation last November after receiving a tip from someone who had previously worked with the operators. The suspects rented 33 studio apartments and similar units in residential areas near Nonhyeon Station and Eonju Station in Gangnam, using them as prostitution venues. To evade police detection, they leased the rooms under other people's names.

To screen out unwanted clients, the operators required anyone making a reservation to verify their identity using a mobile phone registered in their own name, building a client list they used to prepare against police raids. They also communicated primarily through Telegram to avoid leaving a traceable record of their brokering activity.

At the larger of the two operations, police estimate approximately 2,800 transactions were brokered over roughly 40 days, a figure calculated from bank deposit and withdrawal records obtained during the investigation. Each transaction was priced at 200,000 won, putting estimated criminal proceeds for that period at 574.6 million won.

The operators and workers settled payments in cash to avoid leaving a paper trail, according to police. The operators would leave cash inside refrigerators and other spots in the studio apartments for the workers to collect.

The arrested operators had been advertising and brokering prostitution on websites and through Telegram for years, investigators found. At the time of their arrest, they were carrying 24.8 million won in cash along with multiple mobile phones and several cash-counting machines, all of which police seized at the scene.

The suspects confessed during the investigation. On that basis, police applied the aggravated charge of commercial prostitution brokering — which carries heavier penalties than simple brokering — along with charges of prostitution advertising and brokering and violations of the Medical Service Act.

"Front-line police stations do not have dedicated units that handle only prostitution and public morals cases, but we tracked down these suspects through more than 300 days of persistent investigation," a police official said.

The official added that police would continue to work closely with relevant agencies to respond firmly to prostitution crimes operating in the shadows, with the goal of keeping residents safe.