SUKHOTHAI - A policeman's wife has been arrested and charged with illegal detention and forcing women into prostitution after authorities raided her restaurant in Sawankhalok district.
Pol Col Somkhuan Puengsap, chief of the Anti-Human Trafficking Division's sub-division 4, led a combined team of police, soldiers and local officials to search Srithip Restaurant in Sawankhalok district on Wednesday night.
The raid followed a Chiang Rai woman's complant that her 31-year-old daughter, identified only as Taen, had been illegally detained and forced to provide sex services to customers at the restaurant.
Ms Taen had sought help from a regular customer, asking that he contact her mother in Chiang Rai and ask her to alert police.
The search team found a fearful Ms Taen on the premises. Her head had been forcefully shaved of hair. The woman begged them to rescue her and two friends she said were also forced into the sex trade. However, the two women were not found,
The restaurant owner, Buntharik Ketkhao, 43, the wife of a police officer, said the two women had not come to work on Wednesday and she did not know where they lived.
Police initially charged Ms Buntharik with unlawful detention, forcing others to sell sex services, and labour abuse.