Suspects have been missing for four years after a prostitution operation on the Thai-Myanmar frontier was stopped.
PUBLISHED: 19 Jul 2024 at 17: 40
Two men from South Korea who are alleged to be senior members of a multinational human trafficking gang implicated in a 2019 Rohingya smuggling case have been extradited to Thailand.
Nikom Numprom was arrested in June in Naju City in Jeollanam-do state, said Pol Maj Nagorn Promma, the Thai authorities contact to South Korea. Tanawat Chokamlang was detained in Incheon City earlier this month, and he was transferred to Thailand next week.
On the Nakhon Pathom Provincial Court’s 2019 arrest warrants, Pol Maj Nagorn stated that both people were wanted. On May 22 of this year, an Interpol Red Notice for human smuggling was released.
Unknown number of Rohingya subjects, ranging from young to old, were reportedly smuggled into Thailand from Myanmar in 2019 to get sold to a larger gang based in Malaysia, according to Pol Maj Nagorn. Mr. Nikom and Mr. Tanawat were charged with leading the procedure.
Thai police managed to stop the frontier function and free the victims. Subsequently, the two fugitives eluded South Korea.
Another accused people smuggler ( fourth from left ) is being extradited from South Korea. ( Photo supplied/Wassayos Namkham )
In the future, Thai authorities worked together and exchanged information with Asian authorities, including the Seoul-based Interpol National Central Bureau. According to Pol Maj Nagorn, South Korean officials were able to apprehend Mr. Nikom and Mr. Tanawat a fortnight after the operation began.
He claimed that Thailand’s arrest of the suspects is part of an effort to improve Thailand’s status for battling human trafficking in the hopes that the land will eventually achieve Tier 1 in the US government’s Smuggling in Persons Report.