Seven Filipinos have been arrested on suspicion of smuggling the equivalent of 16 billion won (US$13.7 million) from South Korea, police said Wednesday.

The suspects include a 58-year-old group leader detained under formal arrest and six others who were booked without detention for allegedly smuggling the remittances of Filipino workers in South Korea, according to the international crime investigation unit at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency.

The leader, identified only by his initial L and an illegal immigrant in South Korea since 1993, is accused of transferring the money out of the country by plane after changing the won into dollars and hiding it in packs of instant noodles.

More than 25,000 people deposited sums of money into 59 bank accounts managed by the leader between January 2004 and this month, the police said.

The leader is suspected of pocketing 150 million won by charging 5,000 won in commission fees for each remittance, and another 1.2 billion won from foreign-exchange profits.

Police said they are searching for 35 other members of the group and plan to widen their investigation to crack down on other groups suspected of involvement in similar schemes.

Illegal workers often choose such means to transfer money to their home countries as they do not wish to expose their identities in the process of setting up bank accounts and sending remittances, police said. (Yonhap News)