Information about Kampol Weerathepsuporn, 61 and his wife, Nipa Weerathepsuporn, 68, has been sent to all immigration checkpoints nationwide, while officers have been sent to patrol natural border-crossing channels the suspects might use to escape, said Sutthipong.

There are no reports of them leaving the country, he added.

Kampol, 61, has been fingered as the real owner of the Bangkok-based massage parlour, Victoria’s: The Secret Forever, which was raided on January 12 over suspicion that it engaged in underage prostitution and human trafficking.

After former parlour owner Chuvit Kamolvisit named Kampol as the real owner despite his name not being on the business licence, the Criminal Court last Friday issued arrest warrants for him and Nipa on 12 charges, including procuring prostitution and human trafficking.

The Department of Special Investigation and the military raided the venue and rounded up more than 100 women and girls suspected of working as prostitutes there. At least 11 of the suspects were later found by preliminary tests to be under 18.

At least seven suspects have already been detained in connection with the case, including Sasithorn Weerathepsuporn, a major shareholder and the licence-holder of the business, who turned herself in to police last Tuesday.

Sirinya Sitthichai, secretary-general of the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCD), said Taiwanese drug bosses had moved into the drug-production businesses in the Golden Triangle with new formula of meth created by their chemists after Thailand strictly banned the shipment of 20 precursor chemicals across borders.

Sirinya was speaking during a briefing for reporters on the drug situation in 2018.

The Golden Triangle straddling Thailand, Laos and Myanmar’s borders is notorious as the main production base of illegal drugs that are sold in Thailand. These nations have joined forces to set up the “Safe Mekong Coordination Centre” to jointly fight illegal drug smuggling along the Mekong River and the Golden Triangle.

Sirinya said he was told at a recent Safe Mekong meeting that some Taiwanese people had invested in drug making in the Golden Triangle.

“So the drug-making capacity from the area is still high. When we seized 10 million meth pills, they increased the production capacity to 20 million or 30 million,” Sirinya said.

He said that during the first three months of the 2018 fiscal year that started in October, Thai authorities seized 50 million meth pills. Ten of the seizures were in big shipments of more than a million pills, the ONCB chief added.

Another worrying trend is that the smuggling of heroin from the north of Thailand has been increasing, he added, saying that more heroin abuse has been detected in Bangkok and Chiang Mai.

He said the heroin is believed to come from the Golden Triangle because there are fewer than 2,000 rai (320 hectares) of poppies in Thailand while there are still more than 20,000 rai of poppies on the Myanmar side.

Boonchai Bach, 40, a Vietnamese national with Thai citizenship, was arrested on Friday evening over the smuggling of 14 rhino horns worth around $1 million from Africa to Thailand.

His downfall follows the December 12 arrest of Nikorn Wongprachan, a Thai National Parks and Wildlife Conservation official, at Bangkok’s main airport as he attempted to smuggle the rhino horn from the quarantine section to a nearby apartment.

The horn was smuggled into Bangkok by a Chinese man who was arrested a day before on arrival from Johannesburg, South Africa.

The police sting led to Boonchai, who financed the network.

“This is a major smuggling syndicate and Boonchai is a ringleader,” General Chalermkiat Srivorakan, deputy national police chief, told reporters Saturday after the suspect arrived at Suvarnabhumi airport ahead of his remand.

“Boonchai admitted he was involved,” Chalermkiat said, adding he faces up to four years in jail for smuggling parts of protected animals.

For years Boonchai and the Bach family are believed to operated with impunity from Nakhon Phanom in northeast Thailand, bordering Laos — linchpin players in a multi-million-dollar trade in illegal wildlife.

The town is a pivot point in Asia’s wildlife trafficking chain, in part because it is the narrowest neck of land for smuggled goods to transit through Thailand, into Laos and onto Vietnam, a major market for animal parts used in traditional medicine.

Freeland, a counter-trafficking organisation which works closely with Thai police, said the Bach family are part of a sprawling Southeast Asian crime organisation dubbed “Hydra”.

The Bachs have “long run the international supply chain of illicit wildlife from Asia and Africa to major dealers in Laos, Vietnam and China,” Freeland said in statement following the announcement of Boonchai’s arrest.

They are believed to work alongside Vixay Keosavang, a Laotian dubbed “the Pablo Escobar of animal trafficking”, who orchestrates a major wildlife trafficking ring from the Communist state, bribing officials to allow him to operate.

Laos has long been a top transit hub for smuggling wildlife products, with widespread corruption and weak law enforcement allowing the criminal activity to flourish.

China and Vietnam are among the world’s biggest markets for parts from endangered or protected species including tigers, elephants, rhino and pangolins.

The traditional medicine market flourishes despite the total lack of scientific evidence as to their efficacy and government campaigns to end the trade.

Thawatchai Raksasil, 33, and his aide were arrested in Khon Kaen using arrest warrants and were brought to the Natural Resources and Environment Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Police for interrogation Friday evening.

They reportedly confessed to being the principle coordinators within the gang.

The arrest is part of ongoing suppression efforts against the gang, which is believed to be the largest Phayung (endangered Siamese rosewood) logging gang in the country and possibly transnational in scope.

The centre’s Phayak Prai taskforce, led by Cheewapap Cheewatham, last December teamed up with Thap Lan National Park rangers to track illegal-logging moves by the gang’s members within the Sakaerat Environmental Research Station in Nakhon Ratchasima province. Two ancient Phayung trees had been cut down and sawed into pieces and placed beside the roadside pending transportation.

The park’s Central Network Anti-Poaching System (NCAPS) cameras were later able to capture the gang returning to the site to transport the logs. When officials showed up to make arrests, they were fired upon by gang members and their vehicles damaged by bullets.

Three people were arrested at the scene, and at least two vehicles were seized as a result.

The centre then mobilised the forces to expand the investigation, which included the Phayak Prai task force, officers from the Royal Thai Police and their Natural Resources and Crime Suppression Division, along with the military from Internal Security Operations Command.

Discovering that one of the cars had a fake licence plate, officials went to check a car rental tent, from which one of the vehicles had reportedly been bought. The business owner claimed that four of his cars had been stolen. The matter is still under investigation.

Meanwhile, officials also expanded their investigation, and learned of the involvement of a resort in a popular tourist attraction in nearby Wang Nam Khiao.

One of three loggers previously arrested in the October operation reportedly confessed that the gang used the resort to plan its operations. The resort belongs to a so-far unnamed former senior police officer, with the rank of Police Lieutenant rank, who claimed that the 12-rai (1.9-hectare) plot was under an Agricultural Land Reform designation.

Typically, land under that designation is distributed by the Agricultural Land Reform Office (ALRO) to landless farmers. However, ALRO informed FPOC officials that the land’s status is still under review and it had not been allocated to anyone.

Athapol Charoenshunsa, FPOC director and deputy chief of the Royal Forestry Department, said that the centre’s initial investigation suggested the criminal ring was probably the largest illegal Phayung logging gang in the country. It is transnational, with several known criminals involved, he said.

“This criminal case is very critical as a number of criminals have records related to similar Phayung logging cases. Despite their criminal records, they did not show fear, but repeated their crimes. They even shot at officials,” Athapol said.

An additional 20 suspected gang members have arrest warrants issued against them, with Vietnamese individuals also identified, putting the total number of criminals known to be involved at 25.

Siamese rosewood has been extensively harvested from Thai forests in recent years, from the Northeast to the eastern forests of the World Heritage Site of Dong Phayayen-Khao Yai Forest Complex which includes Thap Lan National Park.

A surge in demand is partly driven by large-scale international consumption of the wood, including in China. The strikingly beautiful wood is used for household furniture and decoration. In China, many people believe the wood brings good luck and prosperity.

In recent years, foreign nationals have been found to be involved in illegal logging activities, prompting officials to step up their suppression efforts with the help of technology such as the NCAPS camera system.

In a statement issued Friday, the association said what they see as “unfair trade” may undermine foreign business confidence in Thailand.

The Excise Department’s new regulation is similar to the reported suggestion from the Thai Tobacco Monopoly, the association said.

Any new regulation requiring that the tax base for cigarettes be the suggested retail price prevailing upon the date the new law entered into effect (September 16, 2017) would be an unnecessary market interference, contradicting the principles of good governance and a free market, said Stefan Teuchert, president of the EABC.

The European Union, one of the world’s leaders in tobacco control policy and where cigarettes are subject to a mixed system of excise taxation, the taxation system allows “freely formed prices” where retail prices of tobacco products are freely set by business.

Teuchert pointed to the principle of national treatment enshrined in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT), under which internal taxes or regulations shall not be applied to afford protection to the domestic production.

“We believe that the Thai Government has always abided by this commitment in designing and implementing an excise tax structure and related rules for any excisable goods to promote a level playing field in doing business in Thailand,” said Teuchert.

Institute director Somn Promaros told a press briefing that his office had based its decision on the partial fingerprints found on the disputed lottery tickets.

“We have partial finger prints of retired Pol Lieutenant Charoon Wimoon on the tickets that the police sent to us to examine. We could not test the DNA on them because there was too much DNA on the tickets,” the director said. However, the chief police investigator said the forensic findings did not necessarily clinch the case for Charoon.

The five tickets pertain to the 533726 November 1 series last year.

The conflict over ownership of the winning tickets grabbed media headlines and drew public attention throughout the country after Preecha Kraikruan, a teacher of Thepmongkonrangsri School in Kanchanaburi province, came forward in late December to claim he had bought the winning tickets from a vendor but they had gone missing.

His interviews to the press implied that they were stolen but he never named Charoon as the thief. Because of his claims, police froze Charoon’s lottery winnings.

Although Charoon also lives in Kanchaburi, the two denied knowing each other.

The case garnered so much publicity that the national police chief had to step in and assign Provincial Police Region 7 deputy commander Pol Maj-General Krissana Sapdej to head the investigation.

Krissana submitted the tickets in question to the CIFS to examine the evidence on them.

Meanwhile, Preecha told reporters before the CIFS announced its findings that he would not give it much attention. “I guarantee one million per cent that those lottery tickets belong to me. Let us wait for the court’s ruling.” He argued that the lottery tickets would not have his fingerprints as, when he bought them, they were in a plastic bag. “When they went missing, they were still in plastic bag,” he claimed.

Krissana said yesterday he would wait for the official results before commenting.

However, he clarified that the findings of partial fingerprints of Charoon on the tickets could not be considered proof of his ownership.

“The lottery tickets in question certainly had Charoon’s fingerprints as he was the one who cashed the winning money,” Krissana said.

Police wanted to know whether there were fingerprints and DNA traces of others on the lottery tickets or not.

Police will wait for results of another test conducted by the police forensic unit, he said.

His team was expected to conclude the investigation by the end of this year before forwarding it to public prosecutors.

“We are waiting for test results from the Office of Forensic Science of the Royal Thai Police, probably next week,” he said.

He refused to reveal the evidence, saying it was significant to the case. The investigation team will meet on Monday to discuss the case.

The dispute in Kanchanaburi followed a similar case in Buri Ram province when Pansak Suachumsang, 31, filed a complaint with police that his two winning lottery tickets, worth Bt12 million, from the August 16 edition were stolen and that a couple from Roi Et had cashed the winning money.

However, forensic results found the couple’s DNA traces and not those of Pansak on the tickets and that the couple had bought three, not two winning tickets.

Amid wide discussions in social media, some senior police officers advised lottery enthusiasts to take photos of themselves with their tickets or sign their names on it in order to prevent possible disputes.

He faces 12 charges, including procuring prostitution and human trafficking.

Police have contacted the Immigration Bureau to find him and prevent him from leaving the country.

The court also approved an arrest warrant for his wife, Nipa Weerathepsuporn, 68 on the same charges.

Kampol was identified as the owner of the parlour by former massage parlour owner Chuvit Kamolvisit.

Meanwhile, officials from an anti-graft agency yesterday interviewed alleged sex workers rounded up after last week’s raid to find out if they had provided services to police or state officials.

Lt-Colonel Kornthip Daroj, the acting secretary-general of the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), led officials to conduct the fact-finding interviews at the Bangkok Children and Family Home in Ratchathewee district where 24 alleged sex workers aged 18-27 (20 from Myanmar and four from Laos) and one Thai staff member are kept.

The move followed discovery of documents reportedly indicating bribe payments during the raid and recent reports suggesting that state officials had used sexual services at the venue in the Huai Khwang district free of charge.

Meanwhile, Human Trafficking Division officials from the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) collected the 3,500-page case report from police yesterday afternoon to officially take over the case.

A police officer yesterday carries the 3,500-page report in the case of the Bangkok-based Victoria’s: The Secret Forever massage parlour, which is at the centre of an underage prostitution and human trafficking scandal. The files were handed over to the Human Trafficking Division of the Department of Special Investigation at the police headquarters. 

Division deputy chief Pol Lt-Colonel Kritthat Aoumson said DSI aimed to finish its investigations within the legal time frame of 84 days before passing the case on to public prosecutors.

DSI chief Pol Colonel Paisit Wongmuang said the forensic report about contents inside three safe boxes seized during the raid would be complete next week.

Declining to give details of the testimonies, Kornthip said the PACC would try to find evidence against the involved state officials and determine if the PACC had the authority to probe them. This would take 90 days to complete.

Amid scepticism that investigation into the case will end up like the Natari massage parlour case after a raid in 2016, that did not lead to punishment of any official, Kornthip clarified that the Natari case was still being probed by the PACC. He said the PACC was now awaiting information from the DSI and administrators about the state officials who allegedly took bribes or even used sex services at Victoria’s.

In his capacity as secretary-general of the Centre for National Anti-Corruption (CNAC), Kornthip said the CNAC had already sent a letter to the Royal Thai Police to set up a committee to probe the parlour’s documents and report the results back to CNAC. The documents reportedly point to bribe payments and carry the initials or nicknames of the alleged corrupt police officers.

Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt-General Sutthipong Wongpin, meanwhile, urged the public not to worry, as the authorities were checking the bribe-taking documents which reportedly included payments to officers under the Immigration Bureau. “Whoever is involved in wrongdoing will be punished,” he said.

Authorities are cracking down on Victoria’s on suspicion that it engaged in underage prostitution and human trafficking after the DSI and military raided the venue on January 12. They rounded up more than 100 women and girls suspected of working as prostitutes there – of whom at least 11 girls were later found by preliminary tests to be under 18.

At least seven suspects have already been detained in connection with the case, including Sasithorn Weerathepsuporn, a major shareholder and the licence-holder of the business, who turned herself in to police on Tuesday.

Following the raid, five senior policemen at the Wang Thong Lang Police Station, which has jurisdiction over the area where the massage parlour operated, were hit with transfer orders. The Metropolitan Police Bureau launched an investigation of the policemen amid reports that they might have received bribes, including free sexual services, at the parlour.

Despite arguments made by some business representatives that the wage increase would impact their costs of production, Commerce Minister Sontirat Sontijirawong yesterday said that there will be a very small impact on the cost of production, of goods or of exporting.

An assessment by the ministry found that the higher minimum wage would increase the cost of a finished good by only 0.05 per cent, the cost in the production sector by only 0.07 per cent and the cost of exported goods by 0.022 per cent.

“From our study on the impacts of the wage raise, we found that the average minimum wage of the country has increased to Bt315.9 or a 3.4 per cent increase from the earlier rate. Our study also finds that this rate would cause only a maximum 0.1 per cent increase in the cost of goods production,” Sontirat said.

“Therefore, sellers cannot use this wage hike as a reason to increase the price of their products.”

The Commerce Ministry will meet with representatives of the business sectors next week to review the study’s findings and hear their feedback, he added.

Sontirat suggested that people report any hike in the costs of products or services by calling the Internal Trade Department at 1569 or contacting provincial Commerce offices nation-wide.

Officers will closely monitor the price of goods in the market to ensure that consumers are not taken advantage of.

Labour Ministry permanent secretary Jarin Chakkaphark said that the authorities have planned well in preparation for the wage hike and would provide relief measures for business owners by issuing a special income tax deduction and lowering the co-payment for Social Security by one per cent for 12 months.

Meanwhile, both business owners and workers in Rayong expressed concern about the pay rise. Worker groups said the raise was too little to improve their standard of living, while business representatives raised the spectre of the survival of SMEs due to their increased expenses.

Rayong is one of three provinces to get the highest bump up in the minimum wage at Bt330, alongside Chonburi and Phuket.

Rayong Chamber of Commerce chairman Noppadon Tangcharoen said that increase has huge negative impacts for SMEs, because business owners would have to swallow the increased expense even though small businesses cannot tolerate an increased financial burden. That could force some businesses to close their doors, said Noppadon.

“I have talked with many business owners and all of them expressed their worries that if their business expenses continue to rise, they may have to close down their business, especially during this time of economic downturn,” Noppadon said.

“We want the government to reconsider this policy. And they should comprehensively consider the impacts on all stakeholders, because if the businesses close down the workers will lose their jobs as well.”

Kittisak Hakkhuntod, a construction worker in Rayong, said that he will get little benefit from the pay rise, as a rate of Bt330 per day was too little to pay for the high cost of living in Rayong and would leave most workers unable to save.

“I would like the government to instead control the price of products we use in daily life in order to keep the cost of living low, and ensure that the poor people can get necessary goods at a reasonable price,” Kittisak said.