Police hold Iranian Jassem
Mohammad Abdulla Almazroee, accused of human trafficking.
Theerarak Suthathiwong
An Iranian man has been arrested for allegedly
trafficking women from Uzbekistan for prostitution in Pattaya.
Jassem Mohammad Abdulla Almazroee, 33, was taken into
custody by Pattaya Tourist Police Dec. 18 after an Uzbek woman said she
escaped from the Iranian, who was forcing her to work in Pattaya’s sex
industry.
The 20-year-old victim told police Almazroee had promised
her that a job working as a masseuse would pay for her plane ticket and
fronted her 10,000 baht. When she arrived, however, she found she was only
one of several women forced into prostitution. If they tried to escape or
refused to do as he asked, Almazroee would burn them with cigarettes, she
said.
She and three friends contacted tourist police as they
worked Walking Street. Investigators rescued them from a low-rent South
Pattaya hotel afterward.
Police said the Iranian was one of only seven men running
the operation, the rest of whom are still at large.
