Arakan News Agency
Thai police have arrested a man they believe is the key figure behind a brutal human trafficking network that ran a jungle camp where dozens of bodies have been found.
Soe Naing, widely known as Anwar, was detained last Tuesday as authorities closed in on a camp near the Thai-Malaysia border where as many as 400 trafficked migrants, mainly Rohingya and Bangladeshis, were imprisoned for ransom, Police Colonel Anuchon Chamat, deputy commander of police in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, told Reuters.
He was initially charged with fraud for not releasing a trafficked Rohingya after receiving a ransom payment. Police on Monday announced additional charges against Anwar of human trafficking, false imprisonment and holding people for ransom. Three local government administrators have also been arrested on the same charges, while another four Thais are being sought for arrest, Chief of Royal Thai Police General Somyot Poompanmuang told a news conference. In total, eight people have been arrested in relation to the alleged network.
Anwar’s arrest, and the uncovering of the camp containing 26 bodies on Friday, is the first major bust of a trade in humans that activists and some Thai officials say has been allowed to flourish for years amid indifference and, sometimes, complicity by Thai authorities.
“This is huge. He’s a big guy, a top guy,” Anuchon said.
Anwar denies involvement in trafficking and says he made a living tapping rubber and selling fried bread. People with grudges against him circulated his photo and accused him of trafficking, he told Reuters in Nakhon Si Thammarat police station last Tuesday. “There are many Anwars. I’m also called Anwar. But you have to consider which Anwar is actually a human trafficker,” he said.
Four other people were earlier arrested for alleged involvement in the network since January, Anuchon said, adding that phone records indicated the operation likely stretched to Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
Phone records, financial transactions and witness testimony point to Anwar, a Rohingya living in the southern Thai province of Songkhla, allegedly playing a central role in the operation, Anuchon said. Police are also collecting DNA evidence from the grave site, which may contribute to any potential murder charges, he added.
Source : Reuters
