Human trafficking suspect arrested after 12 years on the run Bangkok Post Learning

Police have arrested a woman on suspicion of human trafficking in connection with forced labor on fishing boats after she had been on the run for more than a decade.

Sompong Sroithong, 62, was arrested after officers stopped her pickup truck in Samut Prakan on Monday.

Police have been searching for her since a Thai-African victim filed a complaint with the Department of Social Development and Welfare in 2012, saying he had been deceived with the promise of high wages to work on a fishing boat.

The man said Ms Sompong forced him to work on one trawler after another as a slave labourer, police said. He was eventually dumped into the sea in the Gulf of Thailand by a skipper before being rescued by a Vietnamese cargo ship.

According to police, investigations have revealed that Ms Sompong is the leader of a gang that exploits Thai men and foreigners to work as slaves on fishing boats.