This record is a partial extract of the original cable. The full text of the original cable is not available.

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BANGKOK 000956 
 
SIPDIS 
 
UNCLASSIFIED 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT OF LABOR FOR ILAB - MMITTELHAUSER; BSASSER STATE FOR G/TIP, 
EAP/MLS, DRL/IL, PRM/PRP 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: KWMN KCRM ELAB PHUM KJUS TH
SUBJECT: THAI POLICE BUST HUMAN TRAFFICKING RING; 57 WOMEN AND GIRLS 
RELEASED 
 
¶1. (U) Summary. Thai Immigration Police have detained a ring of 13 
traffickers and released 57 brothel workers in multiple raids that 
took place from January 19-31 in southern and central Thailand.  Of 
the 57 workers, at least 25 have described themselves as victims 
forced into prostitution.  Eight victims were around 15 years of 
age.  The raids were all linked to the escape of a Cambodian woman 
who was found last November near the Malaysian border after fleeing 
from a brothel.  The woman directed police to the brothel, and 
subsequent surveillance and monitoring of bank accounts led to a 
much broader investigation, which revealed a network extending to 
the Cambodian border.  The anti-money laundering law will be applied 
to seize the ring's sizeable assets.  The financier of the ring, who 
is still at large, is reportedly a major land owner.  Warrants are 
out for the arrest of five other Thai and Cambodian traffickers from 
the same gang. End Summary. 
 
¶2. (U) In an interview with Thai immigration police in Bangkok, 
Emboffs learned the details of a series of raids that exposed a 
large trafficking ring and released 57 prostitutes from several 
brothels.  The trafficking ring was exposed when one of its victims 
escaped from a brothel (masquerading as a karaoke bar) in Padang 
Besar, Songkhla province, near the Malaysian border.  The Cambodian 
woman was found injured by cigarette burns on November 21, 2005. 
She turned to a Thai NGO, the Center for the Protection of 
Children's Rights (CPCR), which contacted the Ministry of Social 
Development.  Immigration police then raided the brothel on January 
19, 2006, releasing six more prostitutes and arresting four 
traffickers. 
 
--------------- 
A FAMILY AFFAIR 
--------------- 
 
¶3. (U) While detained, one of the four traffickers attested that the 
brothel's procurer was a Cambodian man, Sompon, whose payments were 
transferred to his stepfather's account and managed by his mother. 
Sompon allegedly brought women and girls to a two-story wooden house 
in Lopburi, for the price of 6,000 baht (USD 150) per head.  Sompon 
also is alleged to have provided transport along trafficking routes 
from Aranyaprathet (on the border with Cambodia) to points south on 
the way to Hat Yai, a possible transit point to Malaysia.  According 
to police, money was transferred through Siam Commercial Bank to 
Samutprakan, a province near Bangkok, into the account of his Thai 
stepfather, Song Charam.  Sompon's mother, also Cambodian, is 
believed by police to have been the ring's financial manager.  Money 
then flowed to three bank accounts belonging to two Thai men and one 
Thai woman, living on the Cambodian border, who have not yet been 
apprehended.  According to Thai police, the amount was in "hundreds 
of thousands of baht."  (1 USD = 40 baht) 
 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
FIVE MORE RAIDS FIND 8 TRAFFICKERS AND 50 WOMEN AND GIRLS 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶4. (U) After discovering the brothel in Padang Besar, immigration 
police carried out five more raids in central Thailand.  Three raids 
in Lopburi on January 25 turned up no victims, apparently due to a 
leak, but one trafficker was arrested.  All of these houses had 
small rooms with outside locks, and there was clear evidence of the 
prostitution trade, including 100,000 baht (USD 25,000) in cash.  On 
the same day in Saraburi, one trafficker was arrested and three 
women were released from a local brothel.  On January 31, a large 
raid occurred in Cha Choengsao, in which seven traffickers were 
arrested and 47 prostitutes released.  Of these 47 prostitutes, 25 
are identified as trafficking victims: 17 attested that they were 
captured and forced into prostitution, and another eight of the 
workers were about 15 years old.  Their ethnicities are a mixture of 
Cambodian, Lao, Burmese, and Shan (from Thai hilltribe villages). 
 
¶5. (U) Song Charam, alleged to be a major financier of the ring, is 
still at-large, as are five of his Thai and Cambodian associates. 
The anti-money laundering law will be applied to seize their sizable 
assets, including a number of forfeited houses, businesses, vehicles 
and land deeds.  These assets will be placed in a criminal assets 
fund.  There are no provisions in Thai law to redistribute these 
assets to the victims.  However, civil lawsuits by the victims 
against their traffickers might be pursued. 
 
¶6. (U) Comment.  This latest TIP bust is more evidence that 
traffickers in Thailand are redirecting their efforts towards Hat 
Yai in Songhkla province, which is alleged by the RTG and 
international NGOs to be a growing transit point for destinations 
elsewhere in Southeast Asia.  The head of this investigation, Police 
Colonel Kraiboon Suadsong - Commander of Bangkok Immigration Police 
Division 1, reports to Deputy Police Commissioner Gen. Amnouay 
Phetsiri and has been responsible for several of the police's 
successful anti-TIP investigations in recent years.  End Comment.