Thai man arrested for alleged role in transnational surrogacy ring
A 33-year-old Thai national has been arrested at a house in Nonthaburi province for his alleged involvement in a transnational surrogacy ring operated in neighbouring countries, Crime Suppression Division (CSD) police announced on Saturday.
The division has been investigating the case since 2017 when Customs officials found six tubes of human semen hidden in nitrogen tanks on board a truck in Nong Khai province, CSD chief Pol Maj-General Montri Theskhan said.
Investigators found that the truck was supposed to deliver the semen to a clinic in Laos that offers surrogacy service to couples with infertility issues. Police believe the operation is part of an illegal surrogacy ring that hires Laotian or Cambodian women to be surrogates, so that the newborn infants would inherit the nationality of their surrogate mothers.
This would help facilitate money laundering operations of illegal businesses, which police believe are backed by Chinese crime syndicates, said Montri.
The suspect, Theeraphong Chaisuk, has reportedly confessed to smuggling semen to Laos and Cambodia since 2014. He would carry around 100 tubes of semen per trip and was paid from 10,000 to 15,000 baht per tube.
Theeraphong reportedly also revealed that the gang had chosen clinics in neighbouring countries instead of ones in Thailand as Thai laws and regulations were highly strict about the nationality of the donors and surrogates. Surrogacy in Thailand is also more expensive than in Laos or Cambodia, he added.
Montri said police believed there were more gang members hiding in Thailand and vowed to continue to crack down on the operation.
