A US Christian missionary who allegedly smuggled seven North Korean nationals into the country has been arrested in Chiang Mai.
In a second case, police have arrested five Thais on charges of sending at least four Thai women to pimps in China as part of a transnational human trafficking gang. Authorities said they believe the Thai suspects are part of an international trafficking operation that also involves Singaporeans and Chinese and also smuggles women into Malaysia and Singapore.
In the case alleging smuggling of North Koreans, police identified the suspect as Isaac Byungdo Lee, 41, a US national of South Korean origin and long-time resident of Thailand.
Mr Lee was arrested on Monday, and brought before the media at the Immigration Bureau in Nong Khai Tuesday.
Pol Col Panlop Suriyakul na Ayutthaya, chief of the Nong Khai Immigration Bureau, said authorities acted on a tip-off that illegal North Korean migrants would be smuggled from Laos into Nong Khai's Si Chiang Mai district.
Pol Col Panlop identified one possible suspect as Mr Lee, caught in Chiang Mai's Saraphi district after a court issued a warrant for him late last month.
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According to police, Mr Lee has lived in Thailand for around 19 years.
He was a shareholder of a hotel in New York and also established the Samphat Jai Foundation in Chiang Mai to spread the Christian faith among locals.
He allegedly told police he was contacted by another US citizen to pick up seven North Koreans, six women and one man, in Ban Pa Sak of Si Chiang Mai district in June.
A South Korean man known as Yu, who lives in Laos, gave him the time and pickup location.
After picking up the Koreans, he dropped off five members of the group at a post office near Si Chiang Mai police station and the remaining two women in Chiang Mai to board a plane to the US.
The five dropped in Si Chiang Mai ended up in police custody at the station. Police believe they were hoping to be arrested and deported to South Korea.
North Koreans who flee their country are likely to enter and work in China first before heading to Southeast Asia.
When they have enough money, they tend to enter Vietnam, Laos and Thai provinces such as Nong Khai, Nakhon Phanom and Bung Kan via border crossings along the Mekong River, hoping to eventually end up in South Korea, Pol Col Panlop said.
In the second case of alleged trafficking women to China for prostitution, the suspects were identified as Sunatthata Ouppakaew, 32, from Nakhon Pathom; Inthu-on Pholphanchu, 25, from Surin; Pradit Thadee, 25, from Surin; Srila-khon Thongkhao, 39, from Surin; and Jittanant Sitthichai, 31, from Bung Kan.
All were arrested on Monday after one of the four women lured into prostitution in the southwestern Chinese city of Chongqing returned to Thailand and sought help from the Pavena Foundation for Children and Women.
The woman told police she pretended she was sick and had to return to Thailand for medical treatment. She also agreed to pay the gang 50,000 baht in exchange for her freedom.
The three other women forced to sleep with customers in Chongqing were rescued after Chinese police raided the brothel they were kept in, Pol Maj Gen Thitirach Nonghanphithak, chief of the Central Investigation Bureau said yesterday.
The raid was carried out after the first woman sought help in Thailand, he said.
The woman also said the gang lured her through a Facebook advertisment offering a well-paid job in a bar in Chongqing.
The day she travelled to China she was accompanied by Ms Sunatthata and two foreign men named as Wei Kang How and Keng Siang Tan, Pol Maj Gen Thitirach said.
After arriving in China she was held in a four-storey building and forced to sleep with many customers, he said.
The woman said she was not permitted to leave the building until the day she was allowed to return to Thailand, Pol Maj Gen Thitirach said.
A total of nine arrest warrants have been issued for suspects in this gang but only five have been detained, he said.
Investigators discovered a credit card held by Ms Srila-khon and another card issued in Britain were used recently to buy 23 air tickets to China, leading police to believe more victims were lured into prostitution, he said.
Other gang members are believed to be Singaporean and Chinese nationals.