A group of men and women who coerced runaway teenagers into prostitution were arrested by the police, Monday.

South Jeolla Province’s Gwangyang police said it booked a total of 11 people on charges of arranging prostitution.

Among the booked 11, four were arrested, six were transferred to the prosecutors without detention and one who ran away was put on a wanted list.

According to the police, the men and women, some of them married couples, are accused of recruiting six runaway girls aged between 15 and 17 in January and February 2015, and carting the victims around in a vehicle for prostitution. 

The main culprit of the gang, whose identity was withheld by the police, raped each new recruit upon their arrival. His wife prepared the victims with make-up and taught them how to receive clients.

The gang provided accommodation for the victims at a studio apartment in Gwangyang-si and Suncheon-si and taught them to use mobile dating app to secure men who were willing to pay for sex.

Police said the gang lured the victims into prostitution themselves or gave a reward of 1 million won ($880) to those who introduced runaway teenagers to them.

The victims were coerced to have sex up to five times a day and were paid between 100,000 won to 150,000 won for each count of prostitution. All the money they made was extorted.

The perpetrating adults threatened the victims they would “follow and catch them no matter what” if the victims ran away, and that if the victims alerted the authorities they would also be punished by the law under the anti-prostitution act.

The police discovered the gang in a windfall while searching for the whereabouts of a teenager who had run away from home due to sexual abuse by her birth father.

The police arrested the father in March.

By Lim Jeong-yeo (kaylalim@heraldcorp.com)