◀ anchor ▶
An entertainment pub that had been operating secretly by creating a secret underground passage connecting the three buildings was caught by the police.
It has been called ‘Babylon’s Fortress’ in the industry as it has been avoiding crackdowns with strict security.
Reporter Jeong Sang-bin reported.
◀ Report ▶
A hotel in Gangnam, Seoul.
If you open the door and go down to the basement, you will find a bookshelf unexpectedly.
When you press the remote control button, this bookcase opens and a secret passage appears.
Across the aisle is an entertainment establishment.
The table is full of traces of drinking, but strangely, there are no bottles of alcohol, and the customers and employees are already gone.
He quickly removed the bottles and hid in another lodging facility through another secret passage installed underground.
[경찰 관계자]
“If you don’t open the door, it will be forced open.”
The escaped guests and employees were caught hiding in guest rooms and rooftops.
[유흥업소 손님]
“(Oh here. Are you an employee or a customer?) It’s not an employee, it’s a customer.”
It took 5 hours to crack down because guests were hiding in each room.
A total of 121 customers and employees were caught in the crackdown that day.
It is an entertainment pub where more than 100 people were caught while operating illegally. The owner locked the door with a chain and a padlock, disguising it as if it was out of business.
[조연익/수서서 생활안전과장]
“We made a triple structure and confirmed that a connecting passage was made, and while searching all seven floors of the hotel, we forced open all of them (arrested).”
There is also a so-called ‘mirror room’ where customers choose female employees, so the police believe that there was even prostitution.
Police believe that this establishment is the largest in Korea and has continued to operate by connecting three 6- and 7-story buildings with secret passages.
It is said that this establishment was called ‘Babylon’s Fortress’ even within the name and industry to avoid crackdowns.
The police have booked all the caught business owners, employees, and customers in their 50s for violating the Infectious Disease Prevention Act, and decided to check whether there is any illegality in the secret passage connecting the three buildings.
This is Jung Sang-bin from MBC News.
Video coverage: Na Kyung-woon / Video editing: Song Ji-won / Video provided by: Suseo Police Station, Seoul
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