Crime Suppression police charged Niran Pansa-ngiem, 34, with human trafficking and said he collaborated with another Thai man, Chakrapan Vacharapin, who was earlier apprehended in Bangkok.
The separate arrests of the two men came in the wake of last year’s rescue of a Thai woman by police in Japan. The woman told Thai police on her return to Bangkok last year that she was forced to work as a prostitute by a Thai-Japanese human trafficking racket.
She reportedly said Mr Niran approached her to work as a waitress in a karaoke bar in Japan and promised a monthly salary of Bt680,000. She was told to meet Mrs Orachorn Yamachi, the wife of a Japanese in Japan.
Mr Niran admitted that he encouraged the woman to work in Japan but did not force her into prostitution.
Police charged him with collaborating with a group of three people to lure women into prostitution, and is subject to a 20-year jail term or fine of Bt80,000-200,000, or both.
