The results of a probe into whether state officials took bribes in connection with a human trafficking network linked to Victoria's Secret Massage are expected by mid-April, the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC) said Thursday.
The high-end "soapy massage" parlour in Bangkok was raided on Jan 12. Seized documents suggest police and a number of influential officials were frequently "treated" to complimentary sexual services there.
The PACC is 30% of the way through identifying who was involved and the probe will be wrapped up within 90 days, said Lt Col Kornthip Daroj, its acting secretary-general.
Since widening their probe into the thinly veiled brothel on Rama IX Road in Huai Khwang district, some 20 state officials, including senior police officers, have been implicated in the scandal.
Five senior officers at Wang Thonglang station have been, or are in the process of being, transferred to inactive posts to clear the way for an inquiry. They include the station chief, the deputy chief of investigation, the deputy chief of crime suppression, an inspector and a crime suppression inspector.
Pol Lt Gen Charnthep Sesavej, the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB) commissioner, has acknowledged reports about special discounts and free services given to Wang Thonglang police.
Meanwhile, the PACC team has interviewed the women and girls who were working at the parlour. They are being treated as victims of a human trafficking gang and have been placed under the care of the Kredtrakan Protection and Occupational Development Centre in Nonthaburi province, Lt Col Kornthip said.
Police said women from other countries who were forced into prostitution there but who were not involved in bribing state officials would be deported.
At least 113 of the women and girls detained as a result of the Jan 12 raid were found to come from Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia, a source revealed earlier this week.
Fourteen of the girls were under 18, said Department of Special Investigation (DSI) deputy chief Songsak Raksaksakul after bone tests confirmed their age.
Former politician Chuvit Kamolvisit, who launched the brothel a few years ago, told the DSI earlier this week that girls aged between 12 and 18 were recruited to work at Victoria's Secret Massage as it was part of a criminal syndicate. The girls' parents were offered "loans" in exchange for sending their daughters there, the source said.
Meanwhile, the DSI is concerned the massage parlour may have been used as a front for money laundering by the criminal network or other parties and has asked the Anti-Money Laundering Office to investigate, officials said.
