My Calling Is Profiler [EN]: Chapter 578

Clearly, they were arrested for petty theft. For those guys to confess to a massacre? Even the judges would strongly suspect something’s fishy.

“Then what should we do?”

“Well…”

Park Do-joon paused for a moment before speaking.

“First, we need to confirm if the Daehan Glory Faction actually exists, right?”

If they exist, there’s a higher chance the crime is real.

“But where do we even start?”

“Even if you can delete things from a computer system, you can’t erase people’s memories.”

Park Do-joon said, getting up from his seat.

“We have to go to Incheon.”

There are several police stations in Incheon. However, there’s a dedicated Metropolitan Investigation Unit for Incheon city. Although it’s called a Metropolitan Investigation Unit, some handle cases nationwide, some handle Incheon, and some handle Gyeonggi Province, depending on their specific affiliation.

And the unit in charge of Incheon, especially the Metropolitan Investigation Unit that constantly deals with gangsters, couldn’t possibly be unaware of the Daehan Glory Faction.

“Daehan Glory Faction?”

“Yes, do you happen to know about them?”

Go Kang-woon, the team leader of the Metropolitan Investigation Unit’s violent crimes division, slightly raised his eyebrows at the mention. Then, he stood up from his seat.

“Shall we grab a cup of coffee?”

“Sure.”

Park Do-joon nodded. Shortly after, Park Do-joon, Go Kang-woon, and Lee Ji-soo settled down in a secluded spot outside the police station.

“You seem to know something.”

“Well, I don’t know where you heard that name, but be careful. They’re dangerous guys.”

“But they weren’t in the computer system, were they?”

“They wouldn’t be. It gets deleted as soon as it’s uploaded.”

“Pardon?”

Lee Ji-soo’s eyes widened in disbelief. But Go Kang-woon took a sip of his coffee and said,

“It gets deleted as soon as it’s uploaded.”

“Surely there’s a program to manage it, right?”

“That’s right.”

This isn’t the era of managing things with paper; everything is managed with programs, and reports are submitted electronically.

“But it’s strange. I definitely upload articles related to the Daehan Glory Faction, but they disappear.”

“Have you ever looked into that?”

“Of course, I have. But it was so absurd that I just deleted it.”

“Clearly, someone higher up is shielding them.”

“Yeah.”

Go Kang-woon nodded and said,

“I’ve received quite a few tips. There were victims, too.”

“Victims?”

“Yeah, I only found out about it by chance at first.”

The informant was a woman who was rescued by accident. She said she was smuggled into the country and forcibly sold by a criminal organization, then confined and forced into prostitution. She was rescued by the police who raided the scene for an unrelated reason.

“And then?”

“That’s when I learned the name Daehan Glory Faction. But before I could properly investigate, that woman was deported for prostitution.”

It’s extremely rare to forcibly deport a victim of an ongoing investigation. No, structurally, it’s almost impossible.

“It seems like someone quite high up is involved.”

“Looks like it. Anyway, that’s why I took personal leave and went to China a few months later to find the victim myself.”

Go Kang-woon thought it was outrageous and wanted to hear more, so he took a vacation and went to China to find the victim.

“But she was dead.”

“Dead?”

“Missing, to be exact.”

The person who went to the market never returned. Afterward, her family reported it to the public security [Chinese police] and tried their best to find her, but they never did.

“It’s highly likely she’s dead.”

“Yeah.”

After that, no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t track down those Daehan Glory Faction guys.

“They’re not easy to deal with, seeing how desperately they hide themselves.”

“Then, did you get anything during the investigation?”

“Nothing at all.”

The only thing he got was the testimony of the already dead woman that she was sold to the Daehan Glory Faction.

“They exist, but they don’t exist…?”

“Yeah, this is the first time I’ve encountered such a case, so I’m honestly taken aback.”

“Thank you. We’ll look into it further and let you know.”

“I’d appreciate that.”

Park Do-joon thanked Go Kang-woon and left the police station.

“What should we do, Senior? It’s going to be hard to track them down like this.”

“It will be.”

The tracking of local criminal organizations starts with identifying them with the help of the local police station. But the fact that the local police don’t know about the Daehan Glory Faction is quite a problem.

“Can a criminal organization hide themselves this perfectly?”

“It’s not impossible.”

Park Do-joon shrugged as he walked towards their car.

“Really? How?”

“Do you know a company called Haneul Industries?”

“Where is that?”

“It’s a company run by my older brother.”

Park Do-joon didn’t bother mentioning that he owned half of the shares and only said that much.

“But why that all of a sudden?”

“Haneul Industries probably has about 2,000… no, about 3,000 employees now.”

“Then isn’t that huge?”

“It is. It’s also a company that supplies first-tier products to Daeguk Group and Hyunseong Group.”

“Wow.”

“But you’ve never heard of it before, right? Why is that?”

“You never told me about it, Senior?”

“That’s not the point. Look at the essence, not the reason.”

“The essence…”

“I told you, it’s a first-tier supplier to Daeguk Group and Hyunseong Group. So, is there any contact with the public?”

“Uh… I guess not?”

“There’s nothing that can be called contact itself.”

They don’t sell to the general public; they only supply to companies. Moreover, with the help of Daeguk Group, they’ve succeeded in entering the defense industry, so there’s no need to promote themselves.

Rather, it’s more problematic for defense companies to become famous.

Because all sorts of spies will flock to them.

“It’s the same with criminal organizations. We only recognize gangs when victims are harmed by them.”

If they commit crimes such as extortion, assault, or obstruction of business, victims will be harmed, and if they report it to the police, the police will recognize the crime.

“There are more criminal organizations that we don’t recognize than you think.”

And the commonality of such violent organizations is that the way they generate criminal revenue doesn’t target the general public.

“Is that possible?”

“It is. Think about how these guys make money in the first place.”

“I guess so.”

If they sell drugs or extort money, there’s a high chance they’ll be caught on the police radar. Because they have to commit crimes targeting the public.

But the Daehan Glory Faction’s source of income currently seems to be human trafficking and smuggling.

“It means it’s not easy for the general public to access them.”

“That’s right.”

Since the general public doesn’t know, they can’t report it, and since there are no reports, it’s not easy for the police to recognize the criminal organization.

“Listen to what Go Kang-woon said. The reason he found out about them was that the arrested woman was the first to mention the Daehan Glory Faction.”

“That’s true.”

In reality, cracking down on such criminal organizations is never easy. Because they know how to use their anonymity thoroughly.

“And you can learn several things from that.”

“How?”

“Even though they’re nationwide, they’re not big.”

“Why?”

“If they’re big, they’d want to get involved in cash-circulating businesses.”

The money people eat, drink, and spend is all cash. But they don’t have that kind of money?

“But aren’t those other things profitable in their own way? You wouldn’t pay for smuggling with a credit card.”

“That’s true, but at the same time, a lot of money goes into laundering [hiding the illegal source of money].”

“Ah~!”

Furthermore, smuggling people from China to Korea means there are recruiters in the local area.

“And it’s unlikely that the recruiter is Korean.”

“I understand what you mean. I mean, it’s unlikely that a Korean organization would go all the way to China to commit murder.”

From the recruiter’s perspective, they would naturally try to take their share, and it wouldn’t be small.

“Is it possible to be nationwide without being a large organization?”

“It’s not a matter of size, but a matter of the scope of activity.”

Even if there are 400 members, if the organization only operates in one area, it’s a local organization. But even if the number is small, if they commit crimes on a nationwide scale, they’re nationwide.

“Actually, what’s important in an organization isn’t the number of people. An organization with only a lot of members is, in a way, outdated.”

If they’re weak and only have a lot of people, they become the police’s first target. There’s no need to clean up the mess.

Once they’re caught, they can release news like ‘Hundreds of nationwide organizations rounded up,’ which becomes a form of promotion for the police.

“But even if the numbers are small, if they bribe well and manage things well from above, their existence can disappear.”

For example, in the case of the legendary Yangwon Faction, if you ask the police, they’ll say, ‘Hey, when did the Yangwon Faction disappear?’ In fact, the Yangwon Faction officially disappeared in the 90s.

But if you ask people living in the unofficial underworld about the Yangwon Faction, they’ll say, ‘They’re still active and still dangerous.’

Because the Yangwon Faction as a violent organization has disappeared, but the Yangwon Faction as a lobbying and criminal organization is still alive.

“It’s highly likely that these guys are the same.”

The Daehan Glory Faction. They may not exist as a violent organization, but they will exist as a criminal organization.

“Those two are completely different. People use them interchangeably, but…”

“That’s true.”

Violent organizations are easier to find and eradicate than you think. But if they change into criminal organizations, finding them is difficult, and eradicating them is even more difficult.

“Then I don’t even know where to start?”

“Honestly, I’m more concerned about something else than that?”

“Something else?”

“With Team Leader Go Kang-woon unable to provide any help, who are we going to ask for help?”

“Huh?”

“We’re essentially tracking a non-existent ghost. But it’s going to be difficult to get police support in tracking that ghost.”

Lee Ji-soo’s face looked somewhat uncomfortable at Park Do-joon’s words. The problem wasn’t the starting point, but whether they could even start.

“First… I think we need to bring someone in from the outside in this kind of situation.”

“Yes? Who?”

“Someone who can stir things up with the police.”

Park Do-joon shrugged and said,

“Usually, that’s called a journalist.”

# Those Who Chase Ghosts

Park Do-joon first asked for help from reporter Seo Joo-ran. As soon as Park Do-joon called, Seo Joo-ran rushed over like lightning.

“So, can I track it down and expose it?”

“We can track it down, but honestly, proving that it’s not a ghost is a completely different matter.”

Even if they find it, if someone above says, ‘It doesn’t exist,’ there will be no support, and there’s only a higher chance that they’ll be in danger.

“If the Daehan Glory Faction knows we’re tracking them, it’s not very likely they’ll just sit still.”

“Why are you telling me that specifically?”

“It could be dangerous.”

They’re guys who can kill dozens of people without batting an eye. No one knows what those guys will do.

“I wouldn’t be a reporter if I was afraid of that.”

Park Do-joon nodded.