Police detain nearly 2,300 foreign criminals in 8-week crackdown

SEOUL, June 3 (Yonhap) -- Police said Friday they have arrested more than 2,000 foreigners for gambling, violence and other crimes in recent months.
The preliminary figure shows crimes by foreigners are on the rise in South Korea, home to more than 1.2 million foreigners, Kang Shin-gurl, an official of the National Police Agency, said without elaborating.



In April and May, police launched a four-month-long intensive crackdown on crimes committed by foreigners. Police plan to release details of their investigations in July.
Police took 2,292 foreigners into custody in the eight-week crackdown. Among them, 233 foreigners were formally arrested while others will either face deportation or trials without being detained, said Kang. He did not give details on how many will be deported to their native countries.
Gambling and violence accounted for more than half of the reported crimes. By nationality, Chinese took the lion's share with 1,496 being arrested, followed by 242 Vietnamese and 82 Thais, according to the police agency.
Police said a growing number of foreign criminals are allegedly exercising violence in an organized way in the name of protecting their nationals, although no foreign criminal organization has been officially discovered yet.
The majority of foreigners living in South Korea reside in Seoul and its adjacent cities.
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