Land of soap and water

'Soapy massage' parlours draining city's water

Police and other officials inspect the water tanks at the Long Beach Massage facility in Huai Kwang district.
Police and other officials inspect the water tanks at the Long Beach Massage facility in Huai Kwang district.

A massage parlour in Bangkok welcomed a team of inspectors on Wednesday amid suspicions it has been illegally consuming groundwater.

Bangkok is famous for having hundreds of so-called "soapy massage" venues that often involve prostitution. They require the use of vast amounts of water for showers and baths.

The preliminary investigation into Long Beach Massage in Huai Kwang district comes one week after a similar inspection of Victoria's Secret Massage.

That parlour was raided earlier in the month, exposing human trafficking, illicit sex involving minors and alleged graft.

Authorities have also collected water samples from 80 other venues for lab tests in recent days.

Suwat Inthasit, deputy commander of the Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division, said the tests at Long Beach suggested the illegal use of groundwater.

The results showed the level of contaminants was 700 microsiemens per centimetre, several times higher than the level found in tap water. Officials suspected Long Beach may have been illegally drawing the water for years and were trying to locate exactly where it was drawn from, he said.

The operators of the parlour, if found guilty, could face up to six months in jail, a 20,000 baht fine or both for violating the Artesian Water Act 1977.

Water samples from a nearby food shop were also found to have higher contimination levels than normal at 364 µS/cm.

Samples were collected from 82 other outlets on Tuesday, a source said. Initial findings showed three or four had high levels of contaminants, indicating the use of groundwater.

Tests on the water quality inside Victoria's Secret Massage's lavatories showed the level of contaminants to be twice as high as regular tap water at 400 µS/cm.

The Anti-Money Laundering Office (Amlo) has frozen 100 million baht worth of assets belonging to the owners of Victoria's Secret Massage and several other parties believed to be connected to human trafficking activities at the parlour. They believe a network may have been supplying illegal workers to a variety of parlours both in Bangkok and beyond.

Victoria's Secret Massage, located in the Rama IX area of Bang Kapi district, was raided on Jan 12.

The bust exposed the illegal hiring of minors and migrant workers and shone a light on what is claimed to be systemic bribery and corruption involving police and high-ranking officials.

It also exposed links to a crime syndicate believed responsible for orchestrating human trafficking on a larger scale.

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Vocabulary

  • bust (noun): an arrest; an unexpected visit made by the police in order to arrest people for doing something illegal - การจับกุม
  • contaminant: a substance that makes something impure, dirty or unsafe - สิ่งปนเปื้อน
  • frozen assets: things owned by someone, especially money and property, that a court has ordered cannot be used by the owner until a final court decision has been made - การยึดหรือพิทักษ์ทรัพย์
  • graft: corruption - การฉ้อโกง
  • groundwater (noun): water that is found under the ground in soil, rocks, etc. - น้ำใต้ดิน
  • illicit: against the law - ผิดกฎหมาย
  • minor: someone who has not reached the age where they are legally an adult - เยาวชน
  • orchestrate: to plan and organise a complicated event or activity -
  • preliminary: coming before the main or most important part of something - เบื้องต้น, ขั้นต้น, ขั้นแรก
  • raid: to forcefully and suddenly enter a place to catch criminals or to search for something like drugs - ใช้กำลังเข้าค้นสถานที่หรือ จับกุมคนร้าย
  • syndicate: a group of people or companies who work together and help each other in order to achieve a particular aim - สมาคม, องค์การ, สหการ , การรวมกลุ่มเป็นสมาคม
  • systemic (adj.): affecting all of something (such as the whole economy); having a widespread effect - ทั้งร่างกาย, ทั่วกาย
  • trafficking: dealing in illegal goods, like drugs, weapons or in illegally moving humans or animals from one place to another - การค้าสิ่งที่ผิดกฎหมาย
  • vast: extremely large in area, size, amount, etc. - กว้างใหญ่, มหาศาล
  • violate: to do something that is against a law, rule or agreement - ฝ่าฝืน, ละเมิด
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