Police said Sunday they have busted a sex trafficking ring suspected of running a massive brothel out of an entire nine-story hotel and bar in southern Seoul.
In the crackdown, police detained the brothel owner who raked in money with corporate style marketing and offered a one-stop service for alcohol, girls and sex in the luxury building in Samsung-dong, southern Seoul.
The Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency said it will seek a formal arrest warrant for the 35-year-old brothel operator, surnamed Jung, while booking 19 others who bought or sold sex in the building without physical detention.
According to officials, Jung and two others opened two luxury bars and a hotel in the nine-story building in June 2010 in the Gangnam district in southern Seoul with about 100 female employees, who offered sex for 330,000 won ($312) per service.
The employees provided sexual services in two bars and customers could bring them to hotel’s top four floors to have sex with them, they said.
The building operators earned an average of about 240 million won a day, adopting marketing strategies, such as offering early bird discounts and preparing stand-by tickets during busy hours.
“A building that has bars and places for prostitution at the same time is not common,” a police official said. “We are looking into whether the owner of the bar and hotel is the same person and whether this place is purposely made for prostitution.” (Yonhap News)
