Prosecutors on Friday moved to indict 72 people, including a senior army officer, in a multinational human-trafficking ring revealed when dozens of bodies were unearthed in the jungles of Songkhla province.
The Office of the Attorney General recommended charges against more than 100 people and issued an order to indict immediately 72 on 16 counts of human trafficking, transnational criminal activity, bringing foreign workers into Thailand illegally and violation of official duty, said OAG spokesman Wanchai Roujanavong at a press conference in Bangkok.
"The OAG has given priority to the issue, as it is a big group of people involving international systems. It caused a lot of damage to the country as there were dead bodies found," Mr Wancha said.
Fifteen of those arrested were public, police or military officials, he said, including four police officers. Another was army adviser Lt Gen Manas Kongpan, who was charged with being the people-smuggling kingpin in the South.
He remains the only military officer charged with complicity in people smuggling, something that has raised eyebrows among human rights groups and observers who say it is unlikely such an influential officer would have acted alone.
Police said they have so far arrested 72 people and issued arrest warrants for 45 more. None of the suspects will get bail, Mr Wanchai added.
A police officer at the Anti-Human Trafficking Division inspects piles of boxes containing documents about Rohingya migrant trafficking cases which have been handed over June 23 to the Office of the Attorney-General. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
"We will not let influential people rise above justice," he told reporters. "For those people who are still on the run overseas, we will work with national police to send them back, according to existing extradition treaties."
The investigation was the "biggest into human trafficking" in Thailand's history, deputy national police chief Aek Angsananont said.
Case files have been sent to a court in Songkhla, where dozens of migrant graves were discovered in an abandoned trafficking camp May 1, and where the suspects are jailed, Mr Wanchai added.
The court then must decide whether to take up the cases.
The sweeping investigation came after 33 bodies, believed to be migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, were exhumed from various jungle camps near the Thai-Malaysian border. The clampdown triggered a regional migrant crisis because it prompted criminals to abandon boats crammed with thousands of migrants at sea, rather than risk landing on Thai shores.
Police say they have now successfully dismantled the trafficking network through the kingdom. But rights groups are waiting for the end of the monsoon season in a few months to see if boats again set sail south from Myanmar and Bangladesh or if new trafficking routes emerge.
The indictments also come just three days before the United States issues its latest assessment of the country's anti-trafficking efforts next week.
Last June, the United States downgraded Thailand to the lowest "Tier 3" status in its 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report, for not meeting the minimum standards for combating the illicit trade. A Tier 3 rating would normally trigger a range of sanctions by the United States but President Barack Obama waived them in Thailand's case.
The new report will be released by the US State Department Monday at 9pm Bangkok time.