Hundreds of Thai Women Sold for Sex, US Prosecutors Say

Estimated read time 2 min read

Hundreds of Thai women were lured to the United States to work in brothels across the country, U.S. prosecutors said, as they announced that five people had been convicted of various charges for their involvement in “modern-day sex slavery.”

Prosecutors said a federal jury on Wednesday found the five people guilty of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and other charges after a six-week trial in St. Paul, Minnesota.

“The defendants … participated in a massive yet brutally efficient criminal enterprise that trafficked hundreds of vulnerable Thai women for sexual exploitation and used sophisticated money-laundering techniques,” Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski told a news conference in Washington on Thursday.

Busadee Santipitaks, spokeswoman for the Thai ministry of foreign affairs, told BenarNews on Friday that Bangkok was “looking into the matter.”

“We believe we have file of this case but we cannot comment now,” she said.

Lt. Gen. Worawat Watnakorn, commander of Thailand’s anti-human trafficking police, also declined to give a reaction.

“I have my deputy following up on this issue,” he told BenarNews.

The women, who were from impoverished backgrounds and spoke little or no English, were coerced to participate in the criminal scheme through misleading promises of a better life in the United States and the ability to provide money to their families in Thailand, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) said in a statement.

“Once in the United States, the victims were sent to houses of prostitution where they were forced to have sex with strangers – every day – for up to 12 hours a day, at times having sex with 10 men a day,” it said.

Full story: BenarNews

BenarNews Staff
Washington

Copyright ©2018, BenarNews. Used with the permission of BenarNews.

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