POLICE are expanding a crackdown on underage prostitution in the upper North, mainly targeting local police involved with the racket and those who were customers.

Pol Lt-General Poonsap Prasertsak, commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 5, which covers the eight upper northern provinces, said yesterday he had ordered a team of detectives to |secretly gather information about the matter.

He instructed the detectives to acquire convincing evidence so that disciplinary action can be taken against the officers involved, Poonsap said.

“I and my team will visit Mae Hong Son next week to follow up on the fact-finding mission,” said the Chiang Mai-based regional police chief.

The police move came as the Interior Ministry investigates Mae Hong Son Governor Suebsak Iamwichan, who is accused by a woman of having sex with her daughter when she was a minor. The woman also alleged that many local police – both high-ranking and junior – were linked with child prostitution as collaborators and customers.

Suebsak has strongly denied the allegation, but the Interior Ministry has set up a team headed by deputy permanent secretary Prayoon Rattanasenee to investigate the allegations of his involvement in child prostitution.

Prayoon travelled to Mae Hong Son yesterday to question the provincial governor about the matter. The ministry has given his investigating committee 30 days to complete its mission.

National police chief Pol General Chakthip Chaijinda said yesterday he was not surprised that the governor came out daily to deny the allegation against him. “I understand that as a senior state official, he has to defend himself,” he said.

Chakthip said he has instructed his deputy, Pol General Srivara Ransibhramanakul, to investigate this matter in order to determine whether it was the current Mae Hong Son governor or his immediate predecessor who was actually linked to the sexual scandal.

“I got a report about the finding, but I can’t disclose it now,” he said.

Poonsap, the Region 5 police chief, said that the team of detectives was working separately from investigators looking into accusations by the alleged victims of child prostitution.

He said at least four local police accused of being involved with the racket had been moved out of their areas of jurisdiction, including a junior officer wanted for allegedly being part of the prostitution ring.

Meanwhile, Pipat Ekpapan – Suebsak’s immediate predecessor who is now the Uttaradit governor – said yesterday he had nothing to do with the teenage prostitution scandal in Mae Hong Son.

“I maintain my innocence that I had never done anything like that. I also 100-per-cent believe that current Mae Hong Son governor Suebsak Iamwichan did not do this,” Pipat said on his Facebook page.

He also posted pictures and details about his social development projects in Mae Hong Son, including scholarships for underprivileged youths.

“Soon the truth will prevail, as an investigation by the Interior Ministry as well as those by the Anti-Human Trafficking Division and the Provincial Police Region 5, are ongoing.

“If anyone did wrong, they won’t escape punishment,” he said.

He said that people who were unfairly judged by society, despite unclear facts in media reports, suffer damage to their names so the public should use their discretion to screen news.

His online post, which received 950 likes and 91 shares as of Friday afternoon, was in response to recent news reports in which a mother has alleged that her teenage daughter and several other girls had been blackmailed and coerced into the sex trade in Mae Hong Son province.

She said some police and state officials, including a provincial governor, allegedly bought sexual services from the minors.

In a related development, an assistant district officer in Mae Hong Son admitted yesterday there had been a practice of providing young prostitutes to local senior officials following reception parties. But Boonyarit Nipawanit, an assistant district |officer in Mae Sariang district who also heads the Federation of Assistant District Officers, vouched for Suebsak, saying he believed the governor “is a good man” and did not have sex with a minor.

Following the 3pm report of an inmate’s extra-judicial killing, Prachacheun police officers found the body of Mae Hong Son native Pichit Chokpakchitporn, 32, at the prison fence.

A police probe found that the inmate tried to escape while others were taking a shower. He got out of his cell and climbed over the first and second ring fences when prison guards spotted him.

He disregarded guards shouting at him to stop and surrender as he was about to climb over the third outer fencer. He was shot and killed instantly by a guard to stop the jailbreak.

His body was sent to the Institute of Forensic Medicine, Police General Hospital for an autopsy.

Pichit was arrested on November 23, 2016, after being found with 170,000 yaba pills and three kilograms of crystal meth or “ice” in Mae Hong Son’s Pai district. He was transporting the drugs, worth Bt40 million, in a sedan for the Hmong drug trafficking ring, which is led by alleged drug baron Laota Sanli.

The 79-year-old Laota was arrested on October last year in Chiang Mai’s Mae Ai border district together with 13 others for narcotic smuggling.

Deputy Government Spokesperson Maj Gen Weerachon Sukhontapatipak said on Friday that the PM was concerned that one-sided remarks may not offer well-rounded information.

The premier made his comments before he left on Friday to attend the 30th ASEAN Summit in the Philippines.

The premier was quoted as saying that his government always insists on the utmost benefit for people when making decisions on state projects. The government also strictly follows the state’s budgetary discipline.

The Navy’s submarine purchase project has followed all necessary legal procedures in procurement, he said.

The Navy first addressed the need before tabling it before several committees and agencies, including the Defence Ministry and eventually the Cabinet, the premier was quoted as saying.

To make people understand the issue, the government has told the Navy to explain the project further and address all points of concern, Weerachon said.

He said that the premier wanted to apologise for some confusion regarding the Cabinet’s approval, but insisted that it is transparent.

The submarine project was first proposed by the Navy before the Cabinet recently approved the purchase of one out of three vessels from China.

The first sub is priced Bt13.5 billion and the total budget is set at Bt36 billion.

Concerns have been expressed about the necessity of the sub while the economy is still sluggish.

A Chinese survey team has began work on the Mekong River between Thailand and Laos last week. However, the local environmentalist group “Rak Chiang Khong” staged the demonstration to show their objection to the navigation channel improvement project on the river.

Protesters at Pha Phra were mostly young people. They held picket signs written in Thai, English, and Chinese asking for the cancellation of the project.

Jirasak Inthayot, the coordinator for Rak Chiang Khong, said that local people had gathered to express their demands that the project should be halted, as there will be many negative impacts to the river and to their livelihood.

“We still insist on our demand that the survey cannot justify the reason [for the project]. We urge that the Chinese team must conduct the impact assessment on the first phase of the project to clarify the real impact of this project to the river,” Jirasak said.

It was reported that the Chinese survey ships were operating in Chiang Saen District and still did not cross into the major rapids in Mekong River Khon Phee Lhong In Chiang Khong District.

The latest arrest was announced at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) on Friday morning. The three people arrested were Nonnarat Mulichan, 38, Poonthanan Mulichan, 30, and Thitiyarat Boonmeeprasert, 38.

They were held under an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court ion Tuesday when police arrested the first suspect, Sarawut Chairitthinat, 38.

A fifth suspect, Suriyo Mulichanm 30, is still on the run.

CSD Commander Pol Maj-General Suthin Suppuang said that the five co-founders of Palitta Pure Inter Cosmetic company were accused by 14 people of cheating them out of Bt82.33 million.

The complainants said were promised returns of 22 per cent in 65 days. But they have not received benefits, nor were their investment funds returned.

Nonnarat allegedly claimed that she and the four other suspects pooled their money to start their own brand of cosmetics. She said the investment required a lot of money but they failed to obtain bank loans, so they decided to raised their own fund through the scheme.

Initially, she said, the business went well but later on salespersons focused on raising funds for commission instead of selling products, so the company became cash-strapped.

She apologised to the investors, saying the problem because she lacked experience in doing business.

Police said the explosion occurred at a three-storey shophouse in Tambon None Phra in Rayong’s Mueang district at 9.10 am.

Three male Cambodian workers suffered severe burns as they cooked in the shop’s basement kitchen. The injured also included shop customers.

Shop owner Papatchaya Thirapaspipat, 45, said the explosion occurred when one worker turned on a microwave oven. She said the explosion might be caused by leakage from the cooking gas cylinder.

The whole kitchen room was damaged and the impact caused the concrete wall at the back of the shop to be hurled three metres.

Authorities sealed off the building pending a structural safety check.

Forensic science police have yet to confirm the cause of the explosion.