PUBLISHED: 11 Mar 2025 at 16: 25
A 54-year-old European computer was arrested in Chon Buri for running a black website that sold child pornography.
The arrest was a joint operation between the Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD ) and US Homeland Security Investigations ( HSI). The suspect identified only as Steffen ( surname withheld ) was apprehended at his apartment in Bang Lamung city on March 5, following an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court on March 3.
TCSD chief Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai told press on Tuesday that the inspection started with a tip-off from HSI, which had tracked Steffen’s role in running a gloomy web page for selling baby sex. HSI believed that the suspect had operated the site for three times. The page featured various types of explicit material, with people paying in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Monero to get the stuff. The obligations were credited to consumer accounts, allowing them to see or save videos.
Upon tracing Steffen’s online financial transactions, researchers discovered that the suspect had been transferring the enrollment fees to his online cards. The funds were subsequently converted into different assets, gradually being exchanged into Thai baht and transferred into Steffen’s bank records in Thailand.
The suspect faces multiple charges, including possession of child pornography for sexual abuse, distributing child pornography for business reasons, distributing, producing, having, importing or exporting child sex out of the Kingdom, engaging in trade or being a part of or involved in child pornography.
The captain said he admitted to the expenses, stating that after retiring from his coding work in Germany, he relocated to Thailand. He explained that he was the superintendent of two black web sites that offered over 5, 000 baby sex videos. These sites had a combined full of more than 10, 000 users, generating an estimated 3.5 million baht in illegal money.
Police officers even seized his computer, a network system, a cellular phone, a storage unit containing 140, 000 sexual files, as well as bank accounts records, credit cards, and SIM cards.