Decade-old sketch leads to woman’s arrest

Police with the Anti Trafficking in Persons Division (ATPD) of the Central Investigation Bureau spent one month looking through loads of files to catch the last suspect in a decade-old human trafficking case. They had only one clue — a sketch of an anonymous woman.
“It is a tough job job but if we did not do it, who would,” said Pol Maj Gen Sarut Kwaengsopha, commander of the ATPD, after his team arrested the suspect in Samut Prakan on Wednesday.
On Sept 16, he signed an order for Pol Col Korkiat Wuthijumnong, the superintendent of Sub-Division 1, to arrest Sompong Soithong, 62, in accordance with a Criminal Court arrest warrant dated Dec 19, 2014. Pol Lt Col Burin Kapittha, an inspector, made the arrest under Pol Col Korkiat’s order.
She had been charged with colluding to traffic in humans through forced labour; jointly detaining, threatening, or using force to deprive others of their physical liberty; colluding to enslave or make others in a similar state; bringing people into or sending them out of the kingdom; and selling, distributing or detaining a person.
Events that led to the arrest began when Pol Maj Gen Sarut ordered his team to search for old arrest warrants.
“Cases related to labour trafficking that are extremely brutal and treat victims as if they are not human must be eliminated,” he said. “We must arrest all people involved in the old cases.”
Pol Col Korkiat, the head of the arrest team, said he assigned Pol Lt Col Burin to search for old arrest warrants for cases with violent behaviour.
His team then found one challenging case involving a middle-aged woman, with only a sketch drawn from the victim’s statement. No one knew her name.
Pol Lt Col Burin said that in 2012, police with the ATPD received information from the Department of Social Development and Welfare that there were victims who were deceived by illegal labour brokers to work on fishing boats with the promise of good pay.
However, when the victims arrived in the Pak Nam Samut Prakan area, they were taken to a karaoke bar and forced to sign a slave-like contract, he said, adding they were confined in a room and ordered not to escape.
After that, they were sent to a fishing boat before being transferred to other boats in the middle of the sea in Malaysia.
The boat captain forced the victims to do hard labour, he said, adding one of them was nearly beaten to death and thrown out at sea.
The victim floated in the water for three days before being rescued by a Vietnamese cargo ship and taken to the Port of Kandla in India.
The victim was later sent back to Thailand. In total, he spent several months making the journey home.
Officers with the Crime Suppression Division 1 collected evidence and reviewed the arrest warrants of five people involved.
Police had arrested four of them but one had escaped, and officers only had a sketch of a middle-aged woman drawn from the victim’s statement.
After looking over the files, the investigating team found the arrested suspects had mentioned the name of a woman and police linked this with the likely criminal at large.
Since there was no arrest warrant for this name yet, they deduced that it might belong to the woman in the sketch.
“As a result, we looked up the 62-year-old woman’s name in the system and discovered that two people with similar names and ages were present,” Pol Col Korkiat said.
“This made us think that one of the individuals was most likely the same one who was depicted in our sketch.
“Finding the true offender between the two is what matters most,” he added. “That’s challenging, of course.”
Police sought to verify Ms Sompong’s identity with the victim who gave the statement at the time.
It was difficult work as police discovered the victim was wanted on more than 10 arrest warrants, including for drug trafficking, after looking up his name in the police database.
The investigation team then chose another option, which was to meet those convicted in the case, one of whom was granted bail while fighting the case in the Supreme Court, he said.
They acknowledged Ms Sompong was one of the people involved in the human trafficking case, he said, adding they also said that she was the same person shown in the sketch.
Police found she worked as a grocery seller in Samut Prakan, near the scene of the incident 12 years ago.
When approached by police, she denied she was the person named in the warrant. But after being interrogated, she confessed she was the middleman who lured victims from various bus stations and delivered them to a karaoke bar in the area for money.
She said she did it for hundreds of people. As for the victims’ final destination, she said she did not know the details.
Ms Sompong also told the police that she had been arrested and charged with human trafficking in another case and was sentenced to three years in prison before being released and arrested again in this case.
“This case is a classic example of how the team’s efforts and a mere sketch can track down the culprit,” Pol Col Korkiat said.
Pol Lt Col Burin, who directed the investigation, said investigators should concentrate on the many sketches in pending cases so these cases can be closed.
“The investigation can be broadened based on the sketches to include additional suspects who are still at large,” he said.
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