A total of nine suspects were nabbed after a seven-day operation by Bangkok’s Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB), including four wanted in regard to eight human-trafficking cases, and another two suspects arrested in connection with related cases.

MPB chief Pol Lt-General Sanit Mahathavorn vowed yesterday to continue the crackdown till his jurisdiction was free of human traffickers.

Warisara Chatree, 52, of Udon Thani, was arrested in Thai Somboon Market in Pathum Thani’s Klong Luang district for charges including procuring women to prostitution, fraud, and illegal detention to coerce others into the sex trade.

MPB inspector Pol Major Wasan Thawatchaiwirut said Warisara’s arrest stemmed from offences in 2009 where she and her husband allegedly lured women to work as prostitutes in South Korean sex parlours.

He said the gang locked the victims up in hotel rooms while they waited for prostitution jobs. After they banged on hotel doors for help, staff rescued the women and sent them to the Royal Thai Embassy in Seoul.

Warisara and her South Korean husband fled the country before investigators reached them, Wasan said. Warisara later told police that her contact in South Korea hired her husband to find Thai women for the sex trade.

She said she was helped by Udon Thani man Somkid Hawichien, who is still being sought, to find women by promising them massage jobs in South Korea. Each victim paid a Bt30,000 fee to Somkid and Warisara.