<B>SAMUT PRAKAN:</B> A Nigerian national was accused of raping a Thai woman, holding her captive for over a week and forcing her to practice swallowing drugs so she could be used to smuggle cocaine to the US, reports said.
Police on Monday rescued a 29-year-old woman (name withheld) who was locked in a rented room in an apartment complex in Muang district.
According to the police, the victim was lured to the room by a Nigerian man called Maxie.
The woman said she met the suspect on a dating website and had been chatting with him for a while before he asked her to meet with him to discuss a business opportunity. He claimed to be working in the travel industry.
“I went there because he told me that he would help me to get to the US to meet my father who lives there,” she told the police.
She met him at his room on Nov 12 where she was raped, brutally beaten and locked up. She said he took away her ID card and her phone.
According to the victim, the suspect forced her to swallow condoms that were filled with powder every day during her captivity.
He told her that she needed to practice because he would use her to smuggle cocaine to the US.
She said the suspect told her that he would get her a passport and send her to the US on Nov 22 and someone would pick her up when she arrived at her destination. She said he told her that he would pay her 60,000 baht for the trip.
She told police that she tried to escape every time he left the room. She tried to write notes and slid them under the door or dropped them from the balcony, hoping that someone would read them and come to her rescue.
“I also banged on the room door and yelled at the top of my voice but people living in the apartment complex didn’t care,” she said. “They probably thought we were husband and wife and didn’t want to get involved.”
She succeeded in getting help after the suspect forgot his phone and left it in the room. The victim contacted one of her friends at a radio station who contacted the police to rescue her.
Police said they are tracking down the suspect.
Meanwhile, a heated debate about the issue is firing up on social media platforms.
Many posters on different webboards felt sorry for the victim and called for harsh punishment for the Nigerian man and to foreigners who take advantage of Thai women and trick or force them to smuggle drugs across the country or sell them as sex slaves.
However, quite a number of posters questioned her story.
One poster said he didn’t believe the woman could be so naïve as to be so easily lured by the Nigerian man.
After all, we have seen in the news where Thai women have been arrested in several countries on drug smuggling charges and the majority of the cases involve drug gangs from Nigeria, the poster said.
“Those imprisoned women should serve as a lesson for Thai women not to be so easily lured by the charms and money from a stranger.”
“If it was a business meeting, she should have met him at a more appropriate place. I’m sure there is more to the story. Let’s not presume that the suspect is guilty until we hear his side of the story,” another poster commented.
One poster questioned the lack of response to her cries by her neighbors. He said he couldn’t believe that in an apartment complex where many families reside, there was not a single decent person who cared to help a woman in distress. The poster said it is quite odd that the people in the building mistook a cry for help as a fight between a husband and wife.
Many posters agreed that this should serve as a lesson to Thai women who see foreigners as ar cash cow.
One poster said: “These women are easily tricked by drug dealers and sex traders because they are blinded by greed. In the end they have no one else but themselves to blame.”