Seoul: Police have taken into custody “money mule” recruiters suspected to have been involved in a late university student’s departure to Cambodia this year before his death in the country, officials said Saturday.

According to Yonhap News Agency, the student was found dead in Cambodia on Aug. 8 after leaving for the Southeast Asian country in July. Cambodian police listed cardiac arrest resulting from torture and extreme pain as the cause of death on his death certificate.

The Gyeongbuk Provincial Police said it apprehended some members of a recruiting ring operating a mule account last month for allegedly scamming the 20-something student into leaving the country for Cambodia. It did not specify the number of people taken into custody, but they are all reportedly South Korean. Mule accounts are bank accounts used to transfer money for criminal purposes, and those who provide them are referred to as money mules.

Police said the student appears to have become involved with money mule recruiters and is tracking down individuals involved in job scams and kidnappings in Cambodia. A week after the student’s departure to Cambodia, a blackmailer speaking Korean in a Korean Chinese accent had called the student’s family and demanded 50 million won (US$35,000), saying the student had caused trouble.

The student’s body was later found near Bokor Mountain, where employment scams and detentions targeting South Koreans have occurred. The student’s body has yet to be repatriated to South Korea due to issues with cooperation from the Cambodian government.