Category: crime & punishment

Here is the back story on the three Koreans that were found murdered in the Philippines:

Three Korean victims found earlier this week in a remote sugarcane field in the Philippines with gunshot wounds to their heads were identified as primary suspects in a multi-million-dollar investment fraud, local media reported Friday.

The three Koreans were found dead by a local farmer on Tuesday in a sugarcane field in the rural town of Bacolor, 75 kilometers (47 miles) northwest of Manila.

They were a 48-year-old man, a 52-year-old man and a 49-year-old woman. The victims were confirmed by their fingerprints to be Korean nationals on Wednesday.

The Korean police told local media on Friday that the three victims were suspects of an investment fraud worth 15 billion won ($13.25 million).

The three individuals left the country before police formally launched an investigation, the Yonhap News Agency reported.

The victims were executives in an investment corporation that they created last year, and the 48-year-old male victim worked as its president.

They jointly operated the company for approximately one year, using a multi-level marketing investment scheme based on foreign exchange margin trading, police were quoted as saying.

While the president of the firm and the female victim were not married, they pretended to be, police said, luring investors to trust them with large sums of money with the promise of high returns.

Victims of the alleged fraud requested police since the summer to investigate the suspects. One petition was filed at the Songpa District Precinct in August and two more were filed to the Suseo District Precinct in September.

Police said the victims left Korea as the investigation was forming.  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link, but I wonder if they were working for a Korean organized crime group and killing them was a way to keep them quiet after they were targeted to be investigated by authorities?

Further reading:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2016/10/three-more-south-koreans-found-murdered-in-the-philippines/

The police on Jeju have launched a crackdown on Chinese tourists due to them committing 95% of petty crime by foreigners on Jeju island:

In downtown Jeju on Sunday night, booming sounds echoed down the streets as three drunken Chinese men pounded on a video arcade in front of a game room. A few passing women were so startled they let out shouts of surprise, but the men only kept on whooping loudly.

“After a Korean woman was murdered in a cathedral in Jeju,” said Park Soo-jung, a 32-year-old resident of Jeju, “seeing big Chinese men scares me.”

On Sept. 22 in Yeon-dong of Jeju, an area often crowded with Chinese visitors, police officers tried to prevent two Chinese tourists from jaywalking.

“Do not jaywalk!” the officers called out to them in Mandarin Chinese.

One of them, a 42-year-old Chinese man surnamed Ma, reportedly answered, “Why are you picking on us when everyone else is jaywalking?”

Ma was charged 20,000 won ($18.26) for breaking the law. He was just one of about 40 found jaywalking within two hours in downtown Jeju.

“After the cathedral incident, we’ve heightened the crackdown against crimes committed by Chinese tourists,” said Kim Chang-hyun, head of a local police team in Jeju. “Once the sun sets, I start worrying what kind of crimes committed by Chinese tourists I’ll be seeing that night.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

This is just a horrible story coming out of Pocheon, north of Seoul:

A middle-aged couple was arrested Sunday for allegedly binding their 6-year-old adopted daughter with duct tape for 17 hours and, when she suffocated, burning her body on a mountain.

The couple denied intentionally killing the girl and said she was being punished for being “too gluttonous.”

Police requested a pre-trial detention warrant Monday for the 47-year-old man and his 30-year-old wife on charges of murder, physical abuse, as well as the mutilation and abandonment of a dead body.

A 19-year-old woman living with the couple in Pocheon, Gyeonggi, was also apprehended on the same charges. Police identified the teenager as a daughter of the father’s close friend, who allegedly took some – if not equal – part in the crime.

The three suspects said during police questioning that they habitually struck the child with their bare hands or a fly swatter because she didn’t obey orders.

Last Wednesday night, they allegedly bound the girl up with duct tape and left home, returning 17 hours later to find her struggling to breathe.

The adoptive mother claimed she performed CPR on the child before she took her last breath. The three moved the body to the couple’s car Friday and drove to a nearby mountain. They allegedly burned the body to hide the evidence.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more of the details at the link, to include how the police determined the adopted parents killed the girl.

I wonder if this would be like the joint patrols the US military and the ROK police conduct near US military bases?:

South Korea and China will discuss the possibility of stationing Chinese police officials on its southern island of Jeju if the relevant authorities here consider it necessary, Seoul’s foreign ministry said Thursday.

The idea was raised by a South Korean opposition lawmaker earlier this week amid an increase in crimes by Chinese tourists on the popular resort island.

“The issue of stationing Chinese police (on Jeju) will be actively discussed with China after talks with our relevant departments, including the police, and if they so wish,” the ministry said. “Even if the Chinese police are stationed here, they would not be involved in our public safety activities, but only work with us in terms of sharing information on criminals and cooperating on safety issues.”  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link.

Further Reading:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2016/09/should-south-korea-end-visa-waiver-program-for-jeju-island/

There is a lesson to be learned here, don’t except drinks from strange people you just met:

Police have arrested a man for allegedly drugging a Uzbekistani women and dragging her to a Busan motel to rob her.

Police said that on Sept 13, the man, surnamed Kang, 35, approached the victim at a bus station in Oncheon-dong. He had a vending machine coffee that contained zolpidem, a sedative primarily used for insomnia.

He introduced himself to the woman as a Japanese living in Korea. Kang told police he talked with her for about an hour before giving her the coffee. After the woman fell asleep, he dragged her to a nearby hotel and stole her belongings, including a gold bracelet, police said.

Kang also allegedly stole about 10 million won ($9,060) from 12 other victims using a similar method.

Police arrested Kang at a motel in the area after going through security camera footage. [Korea Times]

This crazy leftist should be happy he only received 12 years for his attempted murder of US Ambassador Mark Lippert:

The Korean man who attacked U.S. Ambassador Mark Lippert with a knife last year was sentenced to 12 years in prison for attempted murder by the Supreme Court on Wednesday.

The top court convicted 56-year-old Kim Ki-jong, who slashed the ambassador with a knife during a forum in Seoul on March 5, 2015, for attempted murder, assaulting a foreign envoy and obstruction of duty.

“It is appropriate to uphold the lower court ruling that though it was not completed, he had the intention to murder,” the court said, “taking into consideration the details of the crime and his motive, weapon of choice, the size of the knife and usage, magnitude of the attack, as well as the area attacked and its repetitiveness.”  [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.

Further Reading:

https://www.rokdrop.net/2015/03/attacker-contacted-a-north-korean-spy-prior-to-slashing-of-us-ambassador/

Here is an update in regards to one of the recent stories of senior military officers getting themselves in serious trouble.  This was the case that was going to be interesting going to trial because his lawyer was using the defense that the adultery regulation in the UCMJ is unfair because it only applies to heterosexual couples.  It would have been interesting to see how that defense would have played out which now we will never know:

The Air Force says a high-ranking officer who was charged with rape has been found dead in his off-base Colorado home.

Colorado Springs police Sgt. Tim Stanke says officers responded to a report of a suicide when they found the body of Col. Eugene Caughey on Sunday. Stanke says police are awaiting autopsy results.

The 46-year-old Caughey had been vice commander of the 50th Space Wing at Schriever Air Force Base outside Colorado Springs. The unit operates key military satellite systems.

Caughey was charged with adultery, indecent filming or photography, dereliction of duty and conduct unbecoming an officer.

Caughey is accused of raping a woman at Schriever Air Force Base, also in Colorado, in late 2014 or early 2015 while “holding her against the wall and floor using physical strength or violence,” court documents stated.

Prosecutors also accused him of photographing his exposed genitals while in uniform and groping women twice.

His court-martial was scheduled for Oct. 17.  [CBS News]

You can read more at the link.

Tragic story out of Daegu involving the search for a 11-year old boy after his mother was found dead in the Nakdong River and his 26-year old sister was found dead at a park:

Police in Daegu have started a search for an 11-year-old boy who went missing after leaving his apartment with his mother on Sept. 15.

The mother, 56, surnamed Cho, was found dead in the Nakdong River earlier this week, as was his 26-year-old sister, whose body was found at their apartment.

On Friday, the police released three photos of the boy nationwide, Ryu Jeong-min, caught by surveillance cameras.

Taken at three different locations, the photos captured the 11-year-old leaving the apartment building, leaving an elevator and picking up groceries at a supermarket. He was last seen at his apartment lobby as he was leaving with his mother.

Police said the boy is estimated to be 140 centimeters tall and wearing a white T-shirt with blue sleeves, dark pants and a cap.

Finding him is crucial to unraveling the mysterious deaths of his sister and mother, but the police said they don’t rule out that the boy might have killed himself. [Korea Times]

You can read more at the link.

Here is another story of someone from China committing a crime against a Korean national on Jeju:

A Chinese man suspected of attacking an elderly woman with a lethal weapon at a Catholic church in Jeju was arrested on Saturday, police said.

The 50-year-old man, whose identity was withheld by police, was hiding at an unidentified place in Seoguipo on the southern resort island of Jeju when police nabbed him, the Jeju Seobu Police Station said. The place is some 40 kilometers away from the scene of the incident.

He has since been under probe on attempted murder charges, they added.

The Chinese man fled the scene after stabbing the chest and abdomen of a 61-year-old Korean woman who was praying inside a Catholic church in Jeju alone at about 8:45 a.m., the police said. The type of weapon used was not specified.

The woman, identified only by her surname Kim, was in critical condition.  [Yonhap]

You can read more at the link, but I can’t help but think how much different the media reaction would be in South Korea if a USFK servicemember walked into a church and tried to murder someone like this.

It will be interesting to see how much jail time this guy gets for his illegal organ transplant scheme:

The person responsible for 87 illegal organs transplant cases was arrested by the police, putting an end to eight years of hiding in China.
During that time, South Korean patients were supplied organs from deceased Chinese, some of whom were victims of accidents or executed convicts.

The Busan Metropolitan Police reported Monday the suspect, identified by his surname Kim, was arrested and charged with brokering an illegal organs trade with his Chinese partners in China.

Kim, 43, arranged a total of 87 illegal organ transplant surgeries between June 2006 and February 2011 by opening an online community site, which he advertised as a community forum for patients in need of organs transplant. By luring potential clients who were ailing from illnesses such as chronic renal insufficiency and liver cancer to his online site, Kim was found to have brokered illegal transplant surgeries worth around 6 billion won ($5.3 million) in total.

Kim pocketed 600 million won, the police discovered.

The police said Kim led the illegal campaign by arraigning schedules and locations for surgeries. In most cases, organs came from Chinese convicts just executed on death row or Chinese people killed in accidents. Among the 87 cases, six involved organs from live donors. Details as to how the suspect kept in touch with his associates in China were not disclosed.

The police added Kim had stayed in China since 2008 as an illegal alien and avoided arrest. After eight years of living in self-imposed exile, Kim, possibly exhausted from years of laying low, contacted police in South Korea in June and expressed his intention to turn himself in. He was arrested upon his arrival last month at Gimpo International Airport.   [Joong Ang Ilbo]

You can read more at the link.