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Bangkok Post
Bangkok Post
National
KING-OUA LAOHONG

DSI seeks Victoria's Secret indictment

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) has sought an indictment with the prosecutors against the owner of Victoria's Secret Massage for human trafficking and procuring women for prostitution, along with six other alleged accomplices.

Kampol Wirathepsuporn, the proprietor of the massage parlour, remains at large. Police say Mr Kampol may have fled the country.

Supat Thamthanarug, director of the DSI's Bureau of Human Trafficking Crime, handed the investigation report to the Department of Trafficking in Persons Litigation, under the Office of the Attorney General, on Friday, requesting it indict the seven suspects.

The DSI split the investigation into the massage parlour into two cases.

The first case pertains to the charges of conspiring to commit human trafficking and the other to the charges related to seeking women to perform sex services for a fee.

The high-end "soapy massage" parlour in the Rama IX area of Huai Khwang district was raided in January. More than 80 women, mostly from neighbouring countries, found there were believed to have been forced into prostitution. Among them were 14 girls aged under 18.

Authorities widened the investigation and later discovered that 20 state officials, including senior police officers, may be implicated after allegedly incriminating documents were found on the premises.

Meanwhile, the Criminal Court has sentenced the female owner of Thanthip Massage in Pracha Uthit Soi 19 in Bangkok's Huai Khwang district to 19 years and six months jail for running a venue that provides prostitution. Jittana Mangkonkaew, or "Jae Yai", was also ordered to pay a fine of 10,000 baht.

A combined force of police and army officers raided the massage parlour on Feb 7 last year after obtaining information that it provided sex services. Several Myanmar and Lao women were also found to provide sexual services to customers.

According to prosecutors, Ms Jittana and other accomplices were involved in procuring women for prostitution between December 2016 and February last year. The suspects recruited 19 Myanmar and Lao women, including a girl younger than 18, to provide such services.

The women did not have work permits, the prosecutors said.

The court also sentenced two other women -- Suchada Ubolpitak and Knitta Harichai -- to 14 years in jail for making money from women providing the sex services.

The venue's caretaker, Sondaeng Sukchot, was handed a 19-year prison term. The court also convicted job brokerage firm, Imperial Dragon, of recruiting undocumented migrant workers without permits and ordered it to pay a fine of 30,000 baht.

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