Criminal Operating Adult Site in Ecuador Extradited to South Korea
On June 12, a 51-year-old South Korean man, referred to as A, was extradited from Ecuador to South Korea after being implicated in the distribution of over 3,000 child and youth sexual exploitation materials through an adult website. This marks the first instance of a criminal being brought back from Ecuador to South Korea.
The Ministry of Justice reported that A operated the site from November 2017 to November 2019, during which he disseminated a significant amount of illicit content. Prior to this, from December 2012 to October 2019, he was involved in advertising prostitution services on adult websites and received criminal proceeds through cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, amounting to hundreds of millions of won. His accomplices were convicted in 2022 for aiding in the distribution of obscene materials and violating laws against the concealment of criminal proceeds.
The Ministry of Justice, along with law enforcement, tracked the flow of illicit funds from the illegal site for several years, eventually locating A in Ecuador. Although there is no extradition treaty between South Korea and Ecuador, they successfully executed the extradition request. The Ministry plans to assess the scale of the criminal proceeds that were funneled to Ecuador and aims to recover those funds.
The trend of extraditing overseas criminals has been on the rise, with the number increasing from 70 in 2022 to 180 in 2023. As of April this year, 72 individuals have already been extradited, with the number of target countries expanding from 21 to 28, now including nations in South America and Africa, such as Colombia, Mexico, and Senegal.
The Ministry of Justice emphasized that this case demonstrates that there are no safe havens for criminals worldwide.
