The police department in South Korea has recently made four arrests linked to the murder of a 48-year-old woman in the affluent Seocho neighborhood of Gangnam, Seoul. According to reports, the crime was reportedly caught on camera and appears to involve three men attacking the woman before dragging her into a car. Per Chosun, Maeil Kyungjae, Joongang and EToday, the arrested suspects ranged between 24 to 36 years old. The youngest one is believed to be an accomplice who had been following the victim for several months.

The victim is thought to be a former employee of a crypto-related company and owned considerable amounts of tokens such as Bitcoin (BTC). Furthermore, the woman’s husband was also arrested related to cryptocurrency fraud before the crime took place. The law enforcement suspects that there may also be other accomplices besides the four arrested, however, are currently looking for additional suspects.

As for the motive of the crime, it is believed that the men kidnapped the woman, held her for two days and later drugged her with ketamine before finally suffocating her. This then followed by the men taking the victim’s body to a nearby city of Daejeon near Daecheong Dam where it was then found. As it is further understood, one of the perpetrators admitted that the crime was collectively done in order to steal the victim’s cryptos.

Surprisingly, one of these suspects was an ex-college classmate, who was convinced by the other 35-year-old ringleader while another criminal involves a third man, aged 30, who owed money to the 36-year-old – debt that he could repay in exchange of joining the conspiracy and is heavily linked to the crypto industry. Furthermore, it is also reported that the men attempted to cover their trails through the use of cash and pay-as-you-go mobile phones to avoid arrest.

However, South Korea is not first to experience a similar kind of crime in which cryptocurrency was involved. This follows the December last year case of a CEO of a crypto firm who was sentenced to 25-year imprisonment for stabbing his girlfriend to death before throwing her from a 19th-floor apartment complex. Meanwhile, the nation’s police are also battling a consecutive rise in drug-related crimes that are powered by cryptocurrency.

All in all, it is a sad and shocking incident that South Korea’s society has to face, especially since a life was taken due to the misuse of cryptocurrency. Let’s hope that the right steps are taken in order to prevent any similar incidents in the future.



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