"Sold cigarettes to minors? If you pay, we won't report you"…Scary teenagers extorting money from convenience stores

After Threatening "I Will Report You," Extorting Tens of Thousands of Won
Exploitation of the Youth Protection Act Punishing Only Store Owners

Minors who threatened to report to the police after purchasing cigarettes at convenience stores and extorted money from store owners and employees have been caught by the police.

According to reports from Yonhap News and others on the 20th, the Gwangju Dongbu Police Station has booked and is investigating five teenagers on charges of joint extortion under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Violent Crimes. They are accused of going around convenience stores in Gwangju from the 15th to the 17th, buying cigarettes, and then threatening store owners and employees by saying, "We will report you to the police for selling cigarettes to minors," and extorting 700,000 won in cash.

Among the group, one member entered a convenience store and bought cigarettes, and shortly after, several of them entered the store again. One of them claimed to be the cousin of the cigarette buyer and threatened the store employee, saying, "Why are you selling cigarettes to minors? We will report you to the police. If you don't want to be reported, give us 400,000 won in cash." When the employee refused, they actually reported the store to the police. Even after the report, they continued to pressure the store by saying, "If you give us money now, we will cancel the report," eventually receiving 200,000 won in cash and then withdrawing the report.

They also entered another convenience store and used the same method to threaten the employee, extorting 500,000 won in cash this time. Over two days, they went around six convenience stores, threatening owners and employees, extorting a total of 700,000 won from two stores, and reporting four stores for selling cigarettes to minors.

The police stated, "The five formed a team and committed crimes at convenience stores around Gwangju, and two of them were scheduled to be sent to a juvenile detention center for special robbery charges."

Meanwhile, there are criticisms that the reason such crimes continue is due to the loopholes in the current law. The current Youth Protection Act punishes business owners who sell cigarettes to youths with imprisonment of up to two years or a fine of up to 20 million won, and businesses that sell cigarettes to youths may face suspension of operations under the Tobacco Business Act. However, there are no regulations punishing minors who purchase cigarettes.

Because of this, delinquent behavior by youths exploiting this legal loophole continues unabated. Especially when youths forge IDs to buy cigarettes, store owners often have no way to respond. In response, the government revised related regulations in 2019?2020 so that business owners would be exempt from punishment if youths purchase cigarettes using forged or altered IDs.

However, there are growing calls for direct sanctions against youths who purchase cigarettes. In December 2020, Park Seong-min of the People Power Party and others proposed a partial amendment to the Youth Protection Act that would require youths who purchase cigarettes and alcohol to complete community service and special education. However, this bill has been pending in the relevant committee for three years.

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