Hunt for extortion ring 'godmother' in Pattaya

Strange as it may sound, a ‘godmother’ in Pattaya has brought together the police and the military, who have decided to combine forces to chase her down and throw the law book at her. 

But this woman was not in the normal “mamasan business” that Sin City is famous for. She is wanted for allegedly being a key figure in a big extortion ring in Chon Buri province. 

According to initial investigation, the ring has reportedly collected Bt2,000 per month each from more than 100 Vietnamese nationals working in Pattaya. 

Those who pay were given a name card that showed they were “protected” by Wikanda sae Lim or “Je Jiab”, the godmother at large. 

So far one police officer has been identified as having a questionable link to her ring. But something tells us that there may be more officials in on this scam. 

Two of Je Jiab’s aides were arrested this past week: Sukhum Kaewdorndu, a 30-year-old Thai national, and Kaew, a Vietnamese man whose real name was not made available. 

In a raid on a house in Bang Lamung district believed to be the operation centre of this ring, police found a gun, passports and bank passbooks. The cash flow through the bank accounts was around Bt50 million. 

“By paying a fee of Bt2,000 a month they can get protection. If summoned by officials in the area, they can produce the purple card given by us and local officials will know they are with Je Jiab,” Kaew told the authorities after they nabbed him.

The story about the protection ring is not unusual in Thailand, especially in places like Pattaya, one of Asia’s many spectacular tourist detonations. About five million people visit this seaside resort on a yearly basis and one would think it’s virtually impossible to keep a lid on every crime in the city.

But given the amount of cash flow this ring was making, and the number of people who may have been linked to it – officials and foreign nationals looking for work – it’s amazing how such an operation could have gone for so long undetected. Or was it because the officials chose to turn a blind eye?

If anything, it indicates a failure of our system of governance. We are not just talking about employing illegal foreign workers. 

We are talking about an inadequate employment system that ignores the issue of legality, thus, opening up opportunities for exploitation and other illicit practices.

Many say Pattaya is designed to attract the worst kind of foreign tourists. That may be true, considering the kind of industry that the city caters to. But we are not talking about morality here. We are talking about corrupt practices that, with the help of local law enforcement, exploit foreign nationals. And if the law of the land can take on Pattaya and survive, there is a hope for Thailand’s law enforcement after all. 

But why did we have to wait for the military to take charge of the government through a coup before such a ring could be taken down

By doing nothing to counter such scams – regardless of which state agencies are at fault (and some might say that is all of us, in a way), are we not giving the military an excuse to intervene in the country’s politics and governance?