Gyeonggi Special Judicial Police Arrest 17 for Illegal Transport 'Call-Ttwigi' Business Activities

The Gyeonggi Province Special Judicial Police for Fairness is conducting a planned investigation into illegal paid transportation of passenger and freight vehicles within the province.

[Asia Economy (Suwon) = Reporter Lee Young-gyu] Gyeonggi Province has caught 17 individuals involved in illegal taxi operations (so-called call-twigi) using private cars or rental cars, as well as truck owners who transported goods with private cargo trucks without permission and received money. Among them, some were confirmed to have prior records of violent crimes.

The Gyeonggi Province Fair Special Judicial Police Unit announced on the 24th that, as a result of a planned investigation into illegal paid transportation of passenger and cargo vehicles from January to September this year, a total of 17 people, including drivers involved in illegal paid transportation and private cargo truck owners using private cars for illegal cargo transport, were caught; 12 were sent to the prosecution and 5 are currently under investigation.

Among the major cases, suspect A was caught in August 2021 while conducting illegal call taxi operations together with the representative of an illegal designated driver company and 20 call taxi drivers. In particular, A was sentenced to 6 months in prison and 3 years of probation for a total of 12 illegal call taxi operations but was caught again for continuing illegal activities without remorse or repentance.

Suspect B was caught conducting illegal call taxi operations near Pyeongtaek City about 1 year and 6 months after receiving a suspended indictment and other punishments for illegal call taxi operations.

Suspect C, who has prior records of assault, violence, and quasi-forced molestation, was caught on the spot by investigators while illegally operating a taxi targeting passengers in traffic-vulnerable areas near Pyeongtaek City using a vehicle rented by an acquaintance. C was confirmed to have multiple violent crime records, including 4 cases of assault and violence, 2 cases of quasi-forced molestation and violation of the Special Act on Sexual Violence, and 2 cases of drunk driving and hit-and-run causing injury.

Suspect D was caught after conducting illegal parcel delivery operations without cargo transport permission using his own private cargo truck in the Suwon and Dongtan areas for 3 months, receiving a commission of 16,500 KRW per delivery and averaging 8 deliveries per day. It was revealed that D earned about 10 million KRW in illegal profits through these illegal parcel delivery operations.

According to the current Passenger and Freight Vehicle Transport Business Act, illegal paid transportation activities such as call-twigi are punishable by imprisonment of up to 2 years or a fine of up to 20 million KRW.

Kim Min-heon, head of the Fair Special Judicial Police Unit of the province, emphasized, "While taxi drivers are managed regarding their operation qualifications, call taxi drivers are not properly managed in terms of identity, which greatly increases the possibility of leading to secondary crimes. Since it threatens the safety of the residents, we will focus our investigative capabilities on eradicating illegal call-twigi."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.