Administrators of two Line chat groups have been arrested in Bangkok for allegedly enticing boys into sending them sex videos which they then showed to people who paid subscriptions to view them online.
Police from the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) arrested Woramet Thuen-im, 26, at a department store in Mini district in Bangkok, Pol Maj Gen Sarut Khwaengsopha, commander of the ATPD, said on Tuesday.
Mr Woramet was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court on Nov 9 for disseminating child sex videos for commercial purposes and related offences.
The officers also arrested Saranrak Thongsin, 29, a transgender woman, at a room in Bang Khen district, Bangkok.
Saranrak was named in an arrest warrant issued by the Criminal Court on Nov 9 for human trafficking by producing or disseminating pornographic material or sex videos of children aged below 15 years, depriving children under15 of parental supervision, and enticing children into acting inappropriately or performing obscene acts.
Pol Col Phatthanaphong Sriphinphor, superintendent of ATPD sub-division 2 who led the team, said the arrests followed information that a Line group called “Fa Vip’’ had disseminatied sex videos of boys aged 13-18 years.
Viewing was by invitation only of the administrator of a secretive Line group, using the account name “Ice’', and payment of a membership fee of 500 baht each.
Investigators learned that Mr Woramet used the account name Ice. He ran a games shop at a department store in Bangkok.
Mr Woramet had used a young woman's image as his profile photo in a dating app to approach good-looking schoolboys and then persuade them to send him their sex videos.
He posted the video clips on the secret Line group that he had opened. Videos of more than 100 boys were found. Several hundred thousand baht was moved through his bank account, according to Pol Col Phatthanaphong.
During questioning, the suspect allegedly confessed to having lured more than 100 boys into sending him sex videos and to opening and operating the Line group and collecting membership fees for viewing them. He admitted to being the administrator of the page.
The second suspect, Saranrak had opened the Line group “BB Group VIP’’ to disseminate videos featuring transgender women and boys in school uniforms. This Line group had more than 500 members who were each charged 500 baht membership, according to police.
Investigators found that the suspect also posted the sex videos on subscription-based Onlyfans social media channel under the account name “Pretty lady boy’’.
Saranrak had been previously arrested for similiar offences in September, Pol Col Phatthanaphong said.