Of the 73 people extradited to Korea from Cambodia on suspicion of involvement in scams and kidnapping robberies, 49 suspects being investigated in Busan have been arrested.
The Busan District Court held pretrial detention warrant hearings starting around 2 p.m. for nearly seven hours and issued arrest warrants, citing concerns about evidence destruction and flight risk.
Before the warrant hearing, one person waived the hearing, and 48 appeared in court. Many suspects denied the charges, but the court did not accept their claims.
They are suspected of taking part in a so-called "no-show scam" carried out by a local criminal organization around Oct. last year, in which they posed as public officials from government agencies and deceived victims by saying, "An audit is coming up, so please make a proxy purchase of goods from a specific company," to pocket money.
Police believe they divided roles, with one side impersonating public officials and the others acting as employees of a goods supplier to commit the crimes. There are 194 victims nationwide, with losses totaling 6.9 billion won.
Police plan to wrap up the investigation and refer the case to prosecutors within this month.