Authorities set to cooperate with US police on Thais forced into prostitution

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THAI authorities are waiting for a US request for cooperation to further investigate alleged human trafficking of Thai women for prostitution in several American cities following the latest arrest of 20 suspects who are being prosecuted in US federal courts.

The office of Minnesota’s attorney-general said on Thursday that US authorities would prosecute a total of 21 Thai and American suspects, including one who is still at large, for their roles in a human trafficking network luring Thai women to the US to work as prostitutes.

The Thai consulate’s office in Chicago said it was also working with American counterparts to help Thai victims and suspects now in US custody.

Hundreds of women

However, Pol Colonel Krissana Pattanacharern, the deputy spokesman for Royal Thai Police, said US authorities had not yet contacted Thai officials for cooperation on the human trafficking-for-prostitution case in which hundreds of Thai women were believed to be misled by the suspects to go to the US for legal work but were forced to be prostitutes.

Krissana said the crime took place in the US so Thai authorities could not interfere, but officials were ready to cooperate with US officials.

In the meantime, the Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry was responsible for helping Thai victims and suspects, he said, adding that national police chief Pol General Chaktip Chaichinda had already instructed police to step up surveillance of domestic prostitution networks that could be involved in the trafficking of Thai women to the US.

The Chicago Sun Times earlier reported online that customers of a Thai prostitution ring in that city had become key players in the nationwide US operation in which the culprits rented out apartments for the women, shuttling them from airports and even entering them into sham marriages with brothel bosses so the woman could work legally.

“This is a unique twist I haven’t really seen before,” Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart was quoted as saying.

A federal indictment unsealed last Thursday charged 21 people across the country — including six in the Chicago area — with being involved in sex |trafficking. A related indictment in October charged 17 others.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office worked with the US Homeland Security Investigations agents to shut down brothels employing Thai women in the Chicago area and arrested six people authorities identified as participants.

Source - TheNation

 

Alleged traffickers charged with forcing Thai women to US for sex

 

Chicago customers of a Thai prostitution ring became key players in the nationwide operation — renting out apartments for the women, shuttling them from airports and even entering into a sham marriage with a brothel boss in order for her to work legally in the US, Chicago Sun Times online reported on May 25.

Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said, “This is a unique twist I haven’t really seen before.”

 A federal indictment unsealed Thursday charged 21 people across the country — including six in the Chicago area — with being involved in sex trafficking. A related indictment in October charged 17 others, reported the online.

The Cook County Sheriff’s Office worked with the U.S. Homeland Security Investigations agents to shut down Thai brothels in the Chicago area and arrest six people authorities identified as participants.

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 Mohit Tandon, 37, of Burr Ridge, is charged with being a “facilitator” in an international prostitution ring.

Those charged include: Matthew Mintz, 25, Wilaiwan Phimkhalee, 38, Kanyarat Chaiwirat, 50, and Thoucharin Ruttanamongkongul, 34, all of Chicago; Mohit Tandon, 37, of Burr Ridge; and Richard Alexander, 52, of DeKalb, the online reported.

The new indictment says sex traffickers in Thailand arranged for hundreds of Thai women to travel from Bangkok to Chicago, Minneapolis, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Dallas, Atlanta and other cities to engage in prostitution.

 The traffickers painted a rosy picture of the United States when they recruited the women, according to the indictment.

But the women were forced to pay leaders of the ring for debts supposedly associated with their travel and housing — making them sex slaves, the indictment says. Their debts ranged from $40,000 to $60,000.

Many of them were required to undergo cosmetic enhancements such as breast enlargement before they traveled to the United States, officials said.

Phimkhalee, Chaiwirat and Ruttanamongkongul allegedly acted as “mamasans,” running brothels in the Chicago area. Phimkhalee also is described in the indictment as being a sex trafficker.

Tandon, Alexander and Mintz are described in the indictment as “facilitators.”

Source - TheNation

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