2 brokers, 10 females indicted for sex trade in Macau

"Travel, Casino!"

In April 2014, five to six females in their 20s-30s who arrived Macau for sightseeing came outside after unpacking their belongings at an apartment. They began to wait inside a full-size van near a luxurious hotel in the city before one after another entered into the hotel with a Chinese-speaking man. At hotel rooms were Chinese males waiting for them. These women turned out not to be tourists but prostitutes from illegal entertainment establishments who were visiting Macau for sex transactions.

They contacted two brokers including one surnamed Lee (aged 33) through social network services (SNS) when they found advertisements on the Internet. Lee enticed them, saying, “You can make a fortune overseas.” It cost 850,000 to 2.1 million won (approx. 790-1,945 U.S. dollars) for a one-time sex trade, out of which 350,000-1.7 million won (approx. 324-1,574 dollars) was paid to those women. Foreigners can stay in Macau for up to 30 days without a visa. Brokers seduced possible candidates for overseas sex trade by saying that Macau is closer from Korea compared to America or Australia, and it is a lot less risky to be caught. This made dozens of females including a woman surnamed Moon (aged 29) head for the country.

According to International Crime Investigation Squad (ICIS) under the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency on Sunday, it arrested a Korean surnamed Yoo (aged 31) from a commercial merrymaking place in Seoul on charges of working as a pimp between Korean women and foreigners (for violation against the Act on the Punishment of Intermediating in Sex Trade and Associated Acts) in Macau, and indicted two brokers and 10 prostitutes. The ICIS has also put a local broker on the wanted list and is making additional investigation to locate other female prostitutes.