▲ Members of the Dongdaemun gang hold a rally in July 2024.
Police have apprehended some 40 mobsters who formed a gang claiming to inherit the legacy of the Dongdaemun faction led by prominent 1950s political gangster Lee Jung-jae and engaged in repeated group brawls.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency's Metropolitan Crime Investigation Unit announced today (July 23) that it has arrested a total of 40 individuals, including 21 members of the Dongdaemun gang and 19 members of allied violent organizations such as the Sanggye, Itaewon, and Eagles factions, on charges of violating the Act on the Punishment of Violences, Etc.
Fourteen individuals, including a 33-year-old high-ranking Dongdaemun gang member surnamed A, have been transferred to the prosecution in custody, while the remaining seven Dongdaemun gang members were sent without detention.
Authorities found that from 2017 to this year, these individuals operated the gang by persuading local juniors to join while active as Dongdaemun faction members, and engaged in collective gang fights with rival groups.
Investigations revealed that Dongdaemun gang members recruited a total of 16 individuals from 2017 to last year to expand their influence by targeting students who were known as school bullies, or "jjang," during their middle and high school days.
They reportedly promoted the organization by claiming, "We are an organization with deep roots tracing back to Chairman Lee Jung-jae (boss of the Dongdaemun gang) following liberation. If you're going to get tattoos, live the life for real."
During the 1950s and 1960s, Kim Doo-han's Jongno faction, Lee Jung-jae's Dongdaemun faction, and Lee Hwa-ryong's Myeongdong faction formed a triangular rivalry in Myeongdong, Jongno, and Yeongdeungpo. The modern group sought to continue this mafia genealogy.
Police stated that new recruits lived in collective safe houses where they learned the gang's hierarchy and rules of conduct, and participated in acts of violence as part of their syndicate activities.
In particular, they set up safe houses throughout Seoul and Seo-gu, Incheon, placing mid-level leaders as "safe house managers" to make newly joined members memorize outdated behavioral codes.
Prominent rules included "bowing to seniors in a yakuza-style manner," "assigning duties to visit imprisoned members," "strictly obeying seniors' orders," and "ruthlessly punishing those who leave the organization."
New recruits were forced to get the Chinese characters for "Dongdaemun" tattooed across their chests, and hierarchy was maintained by assaulting members who broke the rules.
Members cultivated through such safe house living acted as an "emergency strike force" that stood like folding screens at gang events to display the Dongdaemun faction's clout, or rushed to the scene immediately when conflicts arose with other organizations.
In fact, when high-ranking member A got into a dispute with local mobsters in Ingye-dong, Suwon, in December 2020, he gathered four junior members and engaged in a massive group brawl with about 10 rival gangsters.
Furthermore, in September 2023 at a drinking gathering in Nonhyeon-dong, Gangnam-gu, when a member of another group bumped shoulders with a Dongdaemun faction leader and tried to leave, they chased him down and physically assaulted him in a group. In February of this year, after a rival group allegedly glared at them, they mobilized members from the allied Sanggye, Itaewon, and Eagles factions to stage a street brawl.
Police also applied charges of joint assault under the Act on the Punishment of Violences, Etc., to those who participated in the group assaults and brawls, forwarding them to the prosecution.
Beyond these traditional mob activities of intervening in local turf interests using violence, police also uncovered circumstances pointing to the gang sustaining itself through crimes such as voice phishing.
According to police, the Dongdaemun faction set up a safe house for voice phishing crimes in Qingdao, China, starting in 2013, while operating proxy bank accounts and employing cash collectors domestically.
Recently, they operated offices for personal information trading and investment reading rooms in collusion with other organizations.
Police are currently investigating their underground economic business operations.
The original Dongdaemun faction was dismantled during the government's "war on crime" in 1990.
However, the organization was re-formed in 1996 by local hoodlums who gathered under the premise of "inheriting Lee Jung-jae's Dongdaemun division."
Between 1996 and 1999, they systematically extorted street vendors in central Seoul, and some members were previously arrested in 2011 after meddling in commercial building redevelopment interests and engaging in gang fights with groups from northern Seoul.
Police, who have been monitoring the Dongdaemun faction's activities, pursued a persistent investigation involving the execution of over 200 communication and search warrants and two years of CCTV footage analysis.
As a result, they proved that the organization formed in 1996 to succeed the Dongdaemun faction and the Dongdaemun members rounded up this time constitute a "continuous association," applying Article 4 of the Act on the Punishment of Violences, Etc. (Formation and Activities of Criminal Organizations).
A police official explained, "To apply Article 4 of the Act on the Punishment of Violences, Etc., long-term, multi-dimensional, and tenacious investigations are required to prove the existence of a violent criminal organization."
"By applying this charge this time, we are able to punish leaders with prison terms of seven years or more, and regular members with terms starting at a lower limit of two years or more," the official added.
The total number of Dongdaemun faction members identified by police is 75.
Among them, the 21 individuals arrested this time make up the core force of the organization, while the remaining bosses and senior members reportedly engage in no special activities other than attending organizational family events.
Police emphasized, "Younger generations harboring vague admiration or vanity toward violent criminal syndicates are flowing in and committing organized violent crimes. We will concentrate our investigative capabilities and respond strongly to ensure these acts do not disrupt the peaceful daily lives of citizens."
(Photo provided by Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency, Yonhap News)
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