Police Arrest Slave Smugglers

Police in Korea arrested five people for trafficking 443 underprivileged people, including the disabled, to sea farms and slave ships on remote islands. Three more suspects possibly involved in the smuggling ring are wanted by authorities.

The Busan Maritime Police arrested five people, including a Mr. Kim (48), and are searching for three more suspects possibly involved in the smuggling ring. According to the police, the smugglers allegedly put false advertisements in community papers promising jobs and monthly incomes of 2 million to 4 million won in early January.

Then they sold a 25-year-old mentally retarded man who visited them for a job to an owner of a fishing boat. Before that, they bought drinks for him, made him have a sex with a prostitute and burdened him with 5 million won of debt, the police said.

They also charged him 13 million won in pre-paid wage; he tried to escape from the boat three days after he was sold.

The offenders earned a total of 1 billion won in commissions and pre-paid wages for 443 workers by trafficking them to fishing boats and sea farming in Shinan and Jindo counties in Jeolla Province since 2005. The victims included the disabled, cancer patients, the homeless and the unemployed.