Inquiry focuses on officers implicated in parlour list

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) will interview the people mentioned in a list discovered during the raid of the massage parlour called “Victoria’s: The Secret Forever” on Rama IX Road, its director-general Paisit Wongmuang said yesterday.
If those people were found to be involved, their cases would be referred to the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission, he added.
The list mentioned a number of police officers from Bangkok’s Wang Thong Lang police station, which has jurisdiction over the massage parlour, the Metropolitan Police Bureau, and the Immigration Bureau. The officers involved were mostly identified by their positions rather than their names.
It is understood that the cost of the services received by those officers in September last year was completely covered by the massage parlour’s management.
More than 100 young women were rounded up during the Friday raid conducted by the DSI, the Army and the police. Most of the masseuses are from neighbouring countries, including Myanmar and Laos, who may have been forced to work in the sex trade.
Of the 113 masseuses rounded up during the raid, 92 are from Myanmar, 14 from Laos, four from Thailand, and two from China, while the nationality of one has yet to be determined, DSI deputy director-general Songsak Raksaksakul said yesterday.
Authorities have attempted to determine the ages of all the women by checking their dental mass, he said, adding that the charge of human trafficking would be imposed on those involved if any of the women were found to be under 18.
Five senior officers at Wang Thong Lang police station were transferred to inactive posts yesterday, just a day after the raid.
Metropolitan Police chief Pol Lt Gen Charnthep Sesawej issued the order to transfer the station’s chief, two deputies and two inspectors.
The five are Wang Thong Lang police chief Pol Col Thammanoon Boonruang, his two deputies, Pol Lt Col Naren Krueangsanook and Pol Lt Col Pichai Tooltham, crime suppression inspector Pol Lt Col Dechasawat Khankasikam and investigation inspector Pol Lt Col Pratya Boonyuen.
The order said they were moved to inactive posts at the Metropolitan Police Bureau until further notice.
Boonsap Amornrattanasiri, 55, who was arrested during the raid and charged with sex procurement and human trafficking, yesterday had a bail application turned down. His offer for Bt500,000 bail was rejected by the Criminal Court on the grounds that the human trafficking charge was serious and there was a risk he could abscond.
The man who admitted to operating the parlour was later detained at Bangkok Remand Prison.
The case’s investigators have been instructed to focus on expanding their probe to try to track down the real owners of the massage parlour, DSI’s Songsak said yesterday.