Child porn vanishes in wake of expose

[Coss]

PATTAYA VENDORS WARY AS POLICE SET TRAPS

 

Child pornography and other sex films have largely disappeared from Pattaya's Beach Road [color:red]despite[/color] being widely available there only a week ago.

 

COMMITTED: Pol Col Nanthavut Suwanlaong, superintendent of Pattaya City police station, vows to break the back of the trade.

 

The development comes on the heels of a police crackdown on the material after its widespread availability on Beach Road was brought to the attention of authorities via an investigative report in last Sunday's Spectrum magazine.

 

A Bangkok Post Sunday investigative team observed and secretly filmed men looking for pornography on the road on Friday afternoon.

 

Not only were the covers of the sex films absent from the tables of vendors, but sellers who had previously sold the material upon request this time [color:red]refused to do so.[/color] {...got some but you can't have it..? }

 

The original Spectrum investigation found seven stalls openly displaying child porn for sale on Beach Road. On Friday, none of the shops had child porn _ or any other kind of sex film _ [color:red]on display[/color]. [color:blue]They had been replaced by pirated Hollywood films.[/color]

 

The only exception was a stall with a large quantity of pirated DVDs on display in front of a grocery store near Soi 13/3.

 

The seller there asked the Sunday investigator if he wanted to buy porn. After saying that he did, a woman appeared and asked the investigator to follow her to a nearby tailor's shop.

 

Once inside the shop, the woman produced a plastic bag containing three stacks of pornographic DVDs _ one with child porn, the second Japanese and the third European films. Each stack contained about 30 films.

 

While the investigator browsed through the DVDs, [color:red]six people[/color] outside the shop, including motorcycle taxi drivers, kept a lookout for police.

 

Our investigators secretly filmed a foreign man who came into the shop to purchase porn. The seller later said that he and other foreign men make weekly appointments with the woman to purchase her discs.

 

After browsing through the DVDs, the man became irate. ''This is all old! I want new,'' he said. ''You promised me last week that you would have new movies. Where are they?''

 

The seller blamed increasing police pressure on porn sellers in Pattaya. ''This is what I have. No more,'' she told the man.

 

''The police in Pattaya want to arrest me. I have to be careful. My suppliers are also afraid now.''

 

She told Bangkok Post Sunday that porn sellers had to exercise caution when selling to foreigners. ''[color:red]It is very dangerous to sell to the foreigners because many are working for the police,'[/color]' she said, suggesting it is easier to procure porn in Bangkok's Baan Mor.

 

''My supplier used to come from there but now he is also afraid to come to Pattaya.''

 

The foreign man in the shop selected six titles. The seller left on a motorcycle and returned five minutes later with a small bag that she handed to the man, who paid 500 baht.

 

Most sellers were unwilling to risk selling porn to foreigners.

 

Foreigners were observed [color:red]desperately[/color] hunting for porn at a stall in front of a coffee shop on Soi 13/1 that had displayed about 100 pornographic titles, including child porn, at the time of the Spectrum investigation. The porn was not on display and when the foreigners requested it, they were told by the seller that she had ''no stock'' or ''stock finish''.

 

Porn was also unavailable at a shop in front of a fast food outlet in the same area where dozens of DVDs _ including child porn and bestiality films _ had been on display.

 

The seller who had approached foreigners aggressively only a week ago was now more reticent. She told Sunday: ''I am afraid of the police. They come here every day to check on me. They have [color:red]foreign spies[/color] who will come to buy and then the police will arrest me after.''

 

The panic among sellers comes after the arrest of Khon Kaen native Ubol Dan-ud, 39, on Tuesday. Police said he was found to have over 500 pornographic VCDs, including child porn. He was arrested following an undercover operation by police. Mr Ubol allegedly told police that he bought the discs from a teenager for 70 baht and sold them to foreigners for 100 baht.

 

A foreign man took part in that undercover operation, which has led to the reluctance of sellers to sell the porn for fear of another sting.

 

Pattaya police superintendent Nanthavut Suwanlaong confirmed that his force was using foreigners to crack down on the porn trade in Pattaya.

 

Pol Col Nanthavut said he would do his best to break the back of the porn trade in Pattaya, and encouraged anyone with information relating to it to pass along tips to police.

 

''Despite being short on manpower, we are concentrating on this problem. We are sending [color:red]foreign spies[/color] to gather information and make purchases,'' he said.

 

''We will send police to check the stalls and gather information and we will continue with this crackdown.''

 

 

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[Flashermac]

Must be the Russians.