But the risks associated with smuggling in items were far more serious than just buying, wearing, or using them. “I got caught many times when I was smuggling,” Danbi says. She could typically bribe her way out of individual arrests, but when the regime targeted her whole operation in a sting, things got much worse. “Thirty of us, including myself, my friend, and family, got arrested at dawn,” she says. At this point, she was 17 and she and her older brother Namhoon* were working together. After days of interrogations and torture, her family and friends were released — everyone except Danbi, Namhoon, and their three associates. They were being investigated for smuggling, but because her brother worked as a police officer, he was also accused of being a spy, an umbrella term for someone going against the regime.