My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 406

“Doesn’t seem likely.”

“Is this something that requires eight people?”

“Not at all.”

It’s not a difficult task, and there are plenty of people who could do it for extra income. Besides, even if there are many Americans in Itaewon [a district in Seoul, South Korea, known for its international atmosphere], there’s no reason to import from the US.

Because Amazon, the American online retailer, is accessible from Korea, and you can buy almost anything online.

“No, there’s no reason to do that in the first place. Isn’t that right, Mr. Maxwell?”

“That’s correct. The people living around Itaewon are usually family members of soldiers stationed here.”

And they have access to the military base.

“Plus, the P.X. [Post Exchange, a store on a US military base] inside the military base has a wide variety of goods at low prices.”

In the past, even in Korea, the Welfare Club was called P.X. To put it simply, it’s a supermarket inside the military base. While the Korean army’s Welfare Club is like a small mobile vendor, at best a slightly larger supermarket of about 50 square meters, the US military’s P.X. can’t be called a convenience store. It’s the size of a huge mega-mart.

“You can find everything inside. From alcohol to cigarettes, food… practically everything you can get in the US. The only things missing, unlike in the US, are guns and bullets.”

Maxwell said that as if he knew everything.

“And it’s not a big enough company to have an American doing import work from Korea.”

An American with high labor costs importing and selling daily necessities in Korea? That’s not very likely. It’s inefficient.

Even for foreign companies, it’s much cheaper to dispatch only a few people and hire Koreans who are good at English or Americans who have settled in Korea.

“And the upper floors must be the dormitories.”

Park Do-joon was certain. This was the Vanilla bastards’ headquarters.

“However, unlike what I thought, there are Koreans involved inside. Well, they have to recruit some members in Korea.”

“There are Korean members?”

“Yes, 100%.”

“How do you know? Drug organizations don’t usually recruit outside personnel.”

Joo Kwang-won looked at Park Do-joon with some suspicion. In fact, drug organizations are extremely reluctant to recruit personnel from outside. Moreover, recruiting members from other countries? That doesn’t make sense. But Park Do-joon was certain.

“The name.”

“The name?”

“Indochina and the food they sell there are a play on words. But India is ‘India’ only in Korea; in the US, it’s called ‘India’.”

In other words, the person who named it accurately understood the concept of the Indochina pun and named it that way.

“There’s no way the guys from America would know the Indochina pun.”

That means someone Korean gave them the name.

“And if they think they have the authority to do that, it means there’s probably a fairly high-ranking Korean inside.”

After all, no matter how much a subordinate explains the Indochina pun to an American, would they understand it? As Park Do-joon said, many criminal organizations name their organizations in their own language to establish their identity.

The same goes for companies. Of course, there are cases like Rock and × that aim for the global market from the start, but usually, they prioritize the domestic market and then attach different names when selling overseas.

“Then did they merge with a Korean crime syndicate?”

“No, I don’t think so.”

Park Do-joon shook his head.

“The name Indochina is too difficult a pun for a crime syndicate to understand.”

“Yes, what’s so difficult about Indochina? Everyone knows that country.”

“Yes, India and China are very easy. But Indochina itself is difficult. If you ask Koreans where Indochina is, how many people can answer correctly?”

“That’s true.”

Most Koreans know India and China. So, in the realm of wordplay, anyone can guess that they sell Indian curry and Chinese curry.

“But Koreans don’t really use the word Indochina itself.”

Not many people know that the Indochinese Peninsula is in Southeast Asia, and even fewer know that those countries are Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

“Usually, what Koreans think of when they hear Indochina is the Indochina War or something.”

“That’s right. I don’t think I’ve heard it anywhere else.”

Even then, they only learn it briefly when studying world history; no one memorizes that Indochina is Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in real life.

“The person who named it understands it well enough to be highly educated. The possibility of such a person belonging to a violent organization is not high.”

“Then?”

“They were hired.”

“Hired?”

“As I’ve said repeatedly, these guys aren’t a violent organization. They’re a drug distribution company.”

Of course, they secretly hire and use people. So, it’s not strange to hire someone who can be used here.

“How many guys are willing to sell their conscience for money?”

“Ugh, that’s true.”

Do only criminal organizations commit crimes? No. Humans commit crimes. It’s just that criminal organizations commit violent crimes, so they’re more visible.

In fact, there are countless crimes committed in the context of business. Even the common voice phishing is a type of crime, and fraud is also a type of intelligent business crime.

“If you consider drug sales as a business, there’s no problem with hiring someone with intellectual abilities.”

In the past, the guys who handled drugs were gangsters or local thugs, but now times have changed.

“Now, even hostess bars hire managers who have studied professional economics.”

In other words, hiring someone who knows Korea well in Korea is not particularly strange from a company’s perspective.

“It’s just that the company is a drug distribution company, right?”

“Yes.”

“It’s complicated.”

“Corporate criminals and criminal entrepreneurs are completely different.”

Lee Ji-soo had to admit it. She had never even heard of such a concept at school.

“But I understand that they hired someone in Korea, but they gave him the power to name the store?”

“It’s inevitable. Because they don’t know anything about Korea.”

Of course, you can’t create a system unless you know the local area well.

“What type would they be? To get involved knowing about such a huge drug business.”

“And that person is quite relaxed and witty. They probably have considerable legal knowledge and think they’re an interesting person in their own way. But at the same time, they lack empathy for people. And they have a good sense of responsibility and aren’t the type to do things carelessly.”

“Why?”

“Ah, as I said, they projected an interesting concept onto the store through the Indochina pun. Ordinary people choose plausible or fitting names, not names based on the integrated concept of Indochina.”

If they were running a store, an Indian restaurant would use something like Curry Empire or Curry Land, which would allow you to predict Indian food, and a Chinese restaurant would use a commonly used name like Beijing Road. A pho restaurant would also use a plausible Southeast Asian name.

“But they used a very interesting name. That’s a means of showing that they’re witty.”

“Ah, well, you usually don’t use names like that, right?”

“Yes, even if you do use it, it’s not often that it’s really funny or a pun.”

For example, let’s say you name a Chinese restaurant Jjajang House [referring to Jjajangmyeon, a popular Korean-Chinese noodle dish] or Tiananmen. From that person’s point of view, they might think it’s witty, but from a Chinese person’s point of view, it’s an offensive or dangerous name. It’s not bad to do business targeting Koreans, but you have to give up doing business targeting Chinese people.

“What about being responsible and diligent?”

“If the only purpose is to hide the fact that they’re selling drugs, there’s no reason to sell food from three countries. In other words, if they’re going to do it anyway, they’re the type to do it properly.”

“Isn’t it not their job anyway?”

“Of course. But they’ll manage it to some extent. In the first place, that store is just a tool to hide what they’re really doing.”

Of course, there’s no reason to put effort into the store. Usually, they just pick the easiest and most manageable one and leave it at that.

“Ah, if it were just an American, they’d simply open an Indian restaurant that sells curry.”

Because you can just boil it all at once and keep serving it. Since it’s just a means of wearing a mask, a strongly scented food like curry is perfect, and there’s no reason to operate three of them in a complicated way.

“But they deliberately operate three at once. Furthermore, the last menu, pho, isn’t even good for hiding drugs.”

Curry, which has a strong scent, or Chinese food, which has a strong oily smell, would help to mask the smell of drugs, but pho dishes don’t have a very strong smell.

Of course, they use a strongly scented herb called cilantro, but that’s a spice with extremely divided tastes, so not everyone uses it, and even then, it’s not used much in Korea.

“In other words, there’s no reason to choose it at all. That means you can see that the Korean demanded it.”

They wouldn’t just listen just because they asked. Of course, Americans are likely to object to making things complicated.

“At that time, the general method is to say that they will take responsibility for operating it, especially in Korea.”

In fact, they are all operating well, and even have a reputation as a local 맛집 [mat-jib, a popular or famous restaurant].

“Of course, there is the point that you don’t have to worry about the cost, but in any case, from his point of view, he created unnecessary work.”

The curry expert, the Chinese food expert, and the pho expert are different.

“From that point of view, there is a very high possibility that they are a workaholic.”

“A workaholic?”

“Yes.”

There are often people like that. People who are addicted to work and feel anxious if they don’t work. Of course, that state is not good.

“Apart from being competent, ordinary people will not try to increase their work.”

But he increased it and is even operating it quite well.

“Then what should we think he’s doing?”

“Well. We have to catch him first.”

“They won’t admit the truth, will they? No, is it even possible to catch them without a warrant in the first place?”

“Of course not. So, we have to prove that they are selling drugs first.”

“How?”

“One way is to catch the quick delivery and inspect it.”

The problem is that the quick service driver won’t allow you to damage a properly packaged item. No quick service driver will allow you to tear it open without a warrant.

“No, there’s another way. Catch the delivery person.”

“The delivery person?”

“Yes, the people who deliver will deliver it.”

“But you can’t just catch the delivery person out of the blue, can you? Besides, there’s more than one or two delivery people.”

“No, there is a way to catch them legally out of the blue.”

Park Do-joon said confidently.

천직이 프로파일러 [Cheonjigi Profiler – Born to be a profiler]