Two Singaporeans among four arrested in Thailand after joint SPF-Thai police operation dismantles vice syndicate sending women to Singapore

THAILAND/SINGAPORE: Two Singaporean men and two Thai women have been arrested in Thailand for running a transnational vice syndicate that recruited foreign women and sent them to Singapore to work as vice workers, following a joint operation by the Singapore Police Force (SPF) and the Royal Thai Police (RTP).

The operation shut down the syndicate’s vice activities in Singapore and led to the closure of its Telegram groups.

How the syndicate was traced

Between October 2025 and September 2026, anti-vice operations in Singapore led to the arrest of 19 vice workers managed by the syndicate under the Women’s Charter 1961. Investigations into those arrests produced leads on how the syndicate operated.

The SPF’s Specialised Crime Branch of the Criminal Investigation Department shared its findings with the Royal Thai Police’s Technology Crime Suppression Division of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), and the identities of three syndicate members were established.

On September 15, 2026, Thai police arrested the two Singaporean men, aged 42 and 46, and a Thai woman for offences under the Thai Criminal Code. They seized assets worth more than 350,000 baht, or about S$13,400, including cash, bankbooks, bank cards, computers, mobile phones, land title deeds and sale and mortgage agreements.

Leads from those arrests led to the capture of a fourth member, a Thai woman, on Oct 21. Mobile phones, bankbooks and bank cards were also seized. The two Thai women are aged 33 and 37.

Police chiefs on cross-border cooperation

CID Director Senior Assistant Commissioner of Police Julius Lim thanked the Thai police. “Transnational criminal networks may operate across borders, but so do strong law enforcement partnerships,” he said. “We deeply appreciate the RTP’s partnership in disrupting this syndicate, protecting women from exploitation and tracing the proceeds of crime.”

Police Lieutenant General Nutthasak Chaovanasai, Commissioner of the Thai CIB, said the outcome reflected “the high degree of trust, professionalism and operational coordination between our officers,” and pledged to keep acting to stop such groups from re-establishing their operations.

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