“It’s the same this time. Even if we catch him, it’ll only be on blackmail charges.”
Of course, given the situation, he’ll get the maximum sentence, but that’s nothing compared to murder.
“In the United States, they have separate laws for cases like this that carry enormous penalties, but Korea doesn’t have such laws.”
“Ugh.”
So, the culprit doesn’t intend to kill people, but the number of dead could keep increasing until they’re caught.
“In the worst-case scenario, there’s also the possibility of someone creating a scapegoat.”
“What?”
Kim Seong-han’s face hardened at those words. Was [Park Do-joon] suggesting that he do that? But Park Do-joon didn’t mean that.
“I’m not saying you should do that. I’m saying there will definitely be guys who try to do that.”
“There will be?”
“Yes, the directors… you don’t trust them all, do you? There are those who misinterpret loyalty.”
This incident was the same. They were told not to push it, but those below misinterpreted it as not getting caught while pushing it.
“Moreover, this incident is a major mistake by the police, no matter how you look at it.”
No matter how much they want to pass it off as Han Seong-gi’s personal mistake, it was a huge deal.
If they were really going to make an arrest, they shouldn’t have rushed in all at once. Instead, they should have approached each individual, conducted summons investigations, and offered appropriate compensation to the victims to keep them quiet.
“But they brandished warrants and turned the place upside down, so there’s no way they wouldn’t be angry.”
And since the police aren’t going to compensate them for that or negotiate to keep them quiet, their anger is naturally being passed on to Samhan Group.
“The police might create a scapegoat?”
“In the worst-case scenario, they might. More precisely, they’ll collude with a director within the company. It’s not like the police haven’t done that before, so it’s not difficult.”
Of course, that’s the easiest way.
“But in that case, there’s a possibility that something else will happen later.”
If that happens, Samhan Group will suffer a real blow. They’re already being heavily criticized for concealing the fact that sleep-inducing drugs were spread.
No one buys food they don’t trust.
Just look at the dumpling scandal; it wiped out small and medium-sized dumpling factories in Korea.
“Moreover, other companies won’t just stand by.”
“Hoo, that’s right.”
Right now, Samhan Group is struggling to cover up the incident by any means possible. Of course, they’re giving huge sums of money to reporters and the media.
But at the same time, other competitors are also paying to escalate the situation in order to bring down Samhan. It’s more profitable for reporters to take money from both sides and escalate the situation to their liking.
“Do you remember the beef tallow incident in the past?”
“Ugh, how could I not know about that? Wasn’t that the Jindo Group bastards’ doing?”
The beef tallow incident was when the Korean ramen industry was turned upside down.
Back then, it was common to fry ramen in beef tallow, that is, beef fat. It tasted better that way.
These days, they use vegetable oil, but using animal fat definitely tastes better.
But back then, in order to topple the number one company, Jindo Group, a competitor, claimed through the media that the number one company was using industrial beef tallow, and as a result, that company was almost ruined.
However, the truth is a bit different from what people know. The original number one company never fried ramen with industrial beef tallow. They just classified the beef tallow as industrial when importing it.
That’s natural for a company because it was much cheaper in taxes.
It was only classified as industrial for import purposes.
“Jindo Group rose to number one because of that incident.”
“That’s right.”
“And there are similar incidents, like the MSG incident.”
Kim Seong-han gritted his teeth at those words. That’s because Samhan Group was the one that suffered from that incident.
Jindo Group played the media by saying that Samhan Group was putting MSG [monosodium glutamate] in their food and that it would kill you if you ate it, making all sorts of fuss about it being a chemical.
With such tactics, Jindo Group was able to take the top spot in the food industry.
But MSG is a natural substance, and it has been revealed that there is no problem with the body even if you eat tons of it a day. It’s even a substance that Chinese restaurants scoop out with ladles when cooking.
People boil kelp to add umami [savory taste] when cooking? That’s the process of extracting natural MSG.
“Yeah, I remember. Because of that, using MSG in food became taboo in Korea.”
In fact, only export ramen contains MSG, while domestic ramen does not.
“There are more, like the casein sodium incident.”
Casein sodium. It sounds like a chemical symbol, but it’s also a natural edible substance. But Jindo Group talked about it as if it were some kind of chemical, saying they took it out.
And a rival coffee company took a big hit from that incident.
“Are you saying this incident is their doing?”
“That’s not it. If Jindo Group had done it, they would have contacted the media directly instead of blackmailing. But I thought you should be aware of Jindo Group’s direction.”
“Ugh, that’s true.”
Park Do-joon is right. Covering up the incident in the current situation is not just their problem but also Jindo Group’s problem.
“None of the directors were talking about that…”
“Profiling is originally about analyzing the other party. Since we don’t know who the culprit is, we have to analyze the people who could be the culprit.”
And Jindo Group is definitely someone who could be the culprit, and even if they’re not, there’s a high possibility that they’ll try to find a way to profit from this.
“Perhaps the moment a Samhan Group food wrapper is seen near a deceased person, the death news will spread nationwide.”
“There’s no choice but to recall everything.”
Of course, the damage will be significant in the short term. But there’s no other way. As Park Do-joon said, a half-hearted response would be fatal.
“Then what should we do? We have to catch the culprit no matter what, but now we can’t even know who the culprit is.”
“Since the easy path is blocked, we have to choose the difficult path.”
“The difficult path?”
“Yes.”
Park Do-joon nodded.
“The easy path is the snack or ice cream side. That’s why I investigated that side. But now that side is blocked.”
“There’s another path left?”
“Isn’t there the bakery?”
“Bakery? Ah, that’s right.”
Bakery, meaning the products that come out of bakeries.
“Bakeries are actually the hardest to track.”
Because the bread supplied to bakeries doesn’t have a barcode.
“The good thing is that bakeries are not subject to push sales, so they are not traded in the black market.”
In other words, you only need to investigate one store.
“It’s almost the only method left for us.”
“Bakery…”
“So, we need to know a lot about bread first. The product with the drug from the bakery was a cake, right?”
“Yes.”
“To be exact, it was made from the cream part of the cake, right?”
“So?”
“Then it must have been made in a factory.”
“How do you know?”
“Cakes are made in factories.”
Brand chain bakery companies basically have a unified production system.
In the case of cakes, they are made in factories and delivered regionally, and in the case of bread, they are made in a semi-manufactured state, that is, only baked, and baked in local stores and served immediately.
“In that sense, choosing a cake is the best way to maintain the ingredients as much as possible.”
“What about bread?”
“Isn’t it baked once? We don’t know how the ingredients will be modified. They may disappear altogether.”
“Ah!”
Given that bread is baked at hundreds of degrees for a considerable amount of time, the possibility that the sleep-inducing drug will be completely burned and disappear cannot be ignored. So, from the culprit’s point of view, they will choose the side that can be safely maintained.
“On top of that, the production line is also different. It’s probably not the person in charge of the dough process. No, in fact, I don’t think it’s a production worker at all.”
“Not a production worker? Are you thinking it’s an employee working in that area?”
Park Do-joon shook his head left and right at that question. He had already suspected that too. But after checking, the possibility was not high.
“First of all, I checked the people working at the branch.”
There are a total of six employees: two people baking bread, two students working part-time, and finally, the owner couple.
“Part-time students have no reason to commit such a crime.”
Although it has become common for college students to work part-time, they don’t need a lot of money.
“In the case of the owners, the damage from such an incident is much greater than the profit. Moreover, they are both old.”
It is unlikely that they know much about money laundering using Bitcoin.
“Finally, there are two people baking bread, and there are no problems with either of them in terms of profiling.”
They have no financial problems, and their work history is over 10 years.
“There are no problems with funds, and no recent signs of abnormalities have been found.”
“Even so, can’t they be suspicious?”
“Even if you say ‘even so,’ people don’t change suddenly. Crime is a growing type unless it’s an accident.”
“Growing?”
No one suddenly becomes involved in violent crime. That only happens when they are blackmailed or suddenly need money.
“But one has been working for 10 years, and the other for 5 years.”
Having worked for a long time means that, from a profiling perspective, they are not psychologically volatile, persistent, and diligent.
“And the possibility that such a person will commit such a major crime without any serious reasons for change is not high. Decisively, when I looked at their investigation records, I found that what they feared most was a job change.”
“Why is that?”
“Fearing a job change means that they are worried about the future.”
Kim Seong-han tilted his head as if he didn’t understand those words.
Park Do-joon explained it in detail to Kim Seong-han.
“Basically, criminals, especially violent criminals, have no fear of the future. Having a fear of the future itself means they are ordinary people.”
“I don’t understand?”
“Ordinary people worry about getting caught when they are involved in a crime.”
“Isn’t that obvious?”
Of course, that’s obvious. Kim Seong-han basically has the title of chairman, but that doesn’t mean he’s not an ordinary person in terms of profiling.
A Professional Profiler