A woman believed to have trafficked about 30 women to China to work or
be sold as brides was caught and arrested on Tuesday evening, July 5, at
a Phnom Penh guesthouse, Cambodia with six potential victims, including
two minors.
Thoeun Puthea, 28, was in a room at Dara Guesthouse in Prampi Makara
district when police stopped her and six young women who were set to be
sent to China by way of Vietnam, according to Keo Thea, director of the
municipal anti-human trafficking police. Two of the victims were 17
years old, one was 19, and the rest were in their 20s, an official said.
“The victims said that she was a broker and she also admitted to it,”
Mr. Thea said on Wednesday. “The brokers and the victims have a network
in the provinces. They…gathered in the provinces and then came to Phnom
Penh together to depart to Vietnam before going to China.”
He declined to say how police had located Ms. Puthea, saying that
revealing their methods would allow future traffickers to escape
capture. According to Mr. Thea, however, police have been investigating
Ms. Puthea for months on suspicion that she was trafficking women to
China, but had lacked the evidence needed to arrest her until recently.
“We saw her bringing victims to have passports made and their newly made
passports when they departed to China on three to four past occasions,
he said, estimating that about 30 women had been trafficked.
Ms. Puthea was being held at anti-human trafficking police headquarters
in Phnom Penh on Wednesday and was to be sent to court for questioning
today. The crimes of recruiting, selling or transporting trafficking
victims all carry seven- to 15-year jail sentences, which increase to 15
to 20 years when the victims are minors.
Source: TCD