14-year-old girl sold her body to buy drugs

PHUKET TOWN: Shortly after the discovery recently of the body of a man stabbed 58 times on the playing fields near the public housing estate in Tambon Rassada, Phuket Town, police were again in action in the area on Saturday, this time after a tip-off that drugs were being traded there. Their raid netted four young people in possession of methamphetamine (yah ba). One of them was a 14-year-old girl who said she had been selling her body for a year in order to pay for the drug. Pol Lt Col Manus Aemjareonchaikul, inspector of the narcotics division of Phuket Town Police Station, told the Gazette that his men had seen a group of four people apparently exchanging money and drugs. They swooped and arrested all four — a 21-year-old DJ at a small disco in Phuket Town, who had two pills of yah ba; an 18-year-old fishmonger from the fresh market on Ranong Rd, who had four pills; a 21-year-old junior seaman in the Royal Thai Navy (8 pills); and the girl, who had two pills. During questioning, the girl told the police that she had been a prostitute for about a year. She said that clients were found for her by her friends – other girls of about her age who were either “agents” or prostitutes themselves. She said she charged customers 2,000 baht, which she then shared with her friends. She added that she had used yah ba for “a long time” and that prostitution was the only way she could get the money to buy the drug from two of those arrested with her. Those two denied that they were dealing in drugs; they said they had them for personal use or to give to friends. Police charged the two with possession with intent to traffic, and charged the third man and the girl with possession alone.