[Anchor]

A large group has been arrested for serving fake liquor to intoxicated customers and inflating their bar tabs. They amassed 3.5 billion won through these schemes, and their operation was exposed after an internal gang member reported them.

KNN reporter Ok Min-ji has the story.

[Reporter]

Black tea beverage is poured into a whiskey bottle that still has a little alcohol left.

After topping it off with other unidentified liquids believed to be leftover liquor, the bottle is wiped clean once it is full.

Then, the cap is sealed as if it were brand new.

This is how fake liquor was made and sold by a gang led by a ringleader in his 30s, identified as A.


Operating five entertainment bars around the Seomyeon area in Busan, they lured intoxicated customers and sold them fake whiskey.

When customers fell asleep from drunkenness, they secretly withdrew heavily inflated bar tabs using credit card PINs they had previously acquired.

It is estimated that the money swindled this way amounts to about 3.5 billion won, with victims numbering around 1,000.

Their crimes, which continued for over two years, came to light after a gang member, unable to endure the brutal abuse any longer, reported them to the police.

Three managers, including one with a background in organized crime, controlled lower-level gang members under strict internal rules.

Those who failed to meet their daily quotas or attempted to flee were locked in a high-temperature sauna until they passed out,

[Voice]
"Endure it."

They were also forced to run continuously on a treadmill.

[Voice]
"Run more. More, more!"

They were even forced to self-harm, such as striking their own fingers with a hammer.

[Interview - Lee Seung-joo / Busan Metropolitan Police Agency Wide-Area Investigation Unit]
"Entertainment establishments operate until early in the morning, right? If they failed to meet their quota by the morning, they would immediately be taken away and forced to exercise in a gym like that."

Police have arrested 61 members of the syndicate and detained ringleader A, while placing an Interpol Red Notice on two others who fled abroad, including a co-ringleader and a manager with ties to organized crime.

(Video by Jeon Jae-hyun / KNN, Footage provided by Busan Metropolitan Police Agency)

Ok Min-ji, KNN