Police raided VCK 27 Dec 2019

[Jasper]

It seems immigration police raided VCK today and found 11 illegal workers, Vietnam, Lao, Myanmar there.

[Boy69]

From time to time the immigration police are making spectacle raids for publicity purposes to justify their existence...

[hank75]

Reminds me of when Mekhin was arrested 

[reader]

When reading about raids like this, I'm inclined to ask: who benefits?

[DivineMadman]

I think the raid might have been yesterday and the police press conference was this morning?

Still, I’ve received messages this afternoon from Chakran Sauna that they are open as usual for the big party weekend and I’ve received a Line blast this afternoon with the guys working at the massage shop — presumably only Thai guys.

[Jasper]

Interesting information concerning the police raid is that Vietnamese ex model masseur called Mr Bobby who is “well known among gay tourists” and charges 5000 baht per hour.

I wonder what he looked like. lol

 

Google translation***

While arrested  The officers met Mr Bobby, a famous Vietnamese model.  Who transformed into a career like this in Thailand  Which will have an income of 5,000 baht per hour, which will have a share of Mr. Bobby 3,500 baht, 1,500 baht to the store, and a maximum of 50,000 baht per day

           Bobby is well-known among gay tourists.  And must be booked only  With high-class gay people in Thailand to use the service as well  Which people who use the service must be members only  And customers are mostly foreigners with high society Thais

 

ขณะเข้าจับกุม เจ้าหน้าที่พบ นายบ๊อบบี้ ซึ่งเป็นนายแบบชื่อดังชาวเวียดนาม ที่ผันตัวเข้ามาทำอาชีพแบบนี้ในเมืองไทย โดยจะมีรายได้ชั่วโมงละ 5,000 บาท ซึ่งจะมีส่วนแบ่งเข้าถึงตัวนายบ๊อบบี้ 3,500 บาท แบ่งให้ที่ร้าน 1,500 บาท และมีรายได้สูงสุดถึง 50,000 บาทต่อวัน

          ทั้งนี้ นายบ๊อบบี้เป็นที่รู้จักในหมู่นักท่องเที่ยวชาวเกย์ และต้องจองเท่านั้น โดยจะมีไฮโซชาวเกย์คนไทยมาใช้บริการด้วย ซึ่งคนที่มาใช้บริการต้องเป็นสมาชิกเท่านั้น และลูกค้าจะเป็นชาวต่างชาติกับไฮโซคนไทยเสียส่วนใหญ่

[vinapu]

5 hours ago, Boy69 said:

From time to time the immigration police are making spectacle raids for publicity purposes to justify their existence...

I still feel sorry for those 11 guys who were found and presumably are in trouble now.

Even from blurry pictures in the background  it seems that VCK's reputation for being den of hunks is justified

[vinapu]

4 minutes ago, Jasper said:

 

 

Google translation***

While arrested  The officers met Mr Bobby, a famous Vietnamese model.  Who transformed into a career like this in Thailand  Which will have an income of 5,000 baht per hour, which will have a share of Mr. Bobby 3,500 baht, 1,500 baht to the store, and a maximum of 50,000 baht per day

  

50000 baht a day , this is how legends are created

[Jasper]

an another video on the raid

 

 

[reader]

Although I can't date it exactly (probably circa 2003 or thereabouts), Thaksin's so-called "social order" campaign conducted a well orchestrated raid on Babylon with the media in tow. I was in town at the time and missed it by hours. This was at at period when the sauna was enjoying the height of its popularity with a cross section of locals and visitors.

This extravaganza bears all the same trappings.

 

[DrimVoiz]

2 hours ago, reader said:

Although I can't date it exactly (probably circa 2003 or thereabouts), Thaksin's so-called "social order" campaign conducted a well orchestrated raid on Babylon with the media in tow. I was in town at the time and missed it by hours. This was at at period when the sauna was enjoying the height of its popularity with a cross section of locals and visitors.

This extravaganza bears all the same trappings.

 

I'm lucky Babylon was not raided when I was there...

[DrimVoiz]

3 hours ago, vinapu said:

I still feel sorry for those 11 guys who were found and presumably are in trouble now.

Even from blurry pictures in the background  it seems that VCK's reputation for being den of hunks is justified

Oh no, that's so sad...

But I really want 2 go 2 VCK though...but boys in Silom keeps me busy in every trip, lol

[ggobkk]

And the eternal Thai wonderment - who benefits?

[starbum]

Was the Prince raided too? Saw the logo in the news.

[DivineMadman]

6 minutes ago, starbum said:

Was the Prince raided too? Saw the logo in the news.

Prince was raided earlier.  The Immigration Police “story” is that after they discovered what was going on at Prince - “shocked, shocked I say” - they followed up and it led them to VCK.  

[mgb]

That totally nightmare for tourists. Fun night turned to very bad experience. I gave up such touristy saunas like this.

4 years ago, my friends and i visited Singapore and the sauna we visited on the first night in Sing got raided by police. We're all handcuffed and roughly pushed  on police cars (even they could not find drugs among 50 p customers in there). At the police station, they did urine test on us, took pictures and asked several questions. We were only removed out of there at 04:00 AM. and we had to spend the rest of that night OUTSIDE of police office. One of my friends got so shocked as it was his first overseas trip 

We all cancelled 5-day trip right then (cancelled hotels and visit trip to Universal Studio Sing)  and flew back home.

Then we all never visit Singapore again. Bye Sing forever.

It seems to happen here, in Thailand

P/S: should we do like in Manila to visit sauna: men must wear shirt and underwear entering in sauna? Does costume like this help in case of police raid?

[hank75]

Was it really necessary to put them all in bright orange shirts (obviously pre planned) and parade them past the TV cameras? Their faces are covered but those with body tattoos are easily identified. Feel very sorry for these boys. Nothing but police posturing. 

Is it true Jupiter never gets raided because owner’s husband is a top police officer?

[vinapu]

1 hour ago, ggobkk said:

And the eternal Thai wonderment - who benefits?

immigration police brass, one more star and a bonus for keeping Thailand free of illegal labor without building a wall ( for a week or two   I guess )

[mgb]

31 minutes ago, DivineMadman said:

Prince was raided earlier.  The Immigration Police “story” is that after they discovered what was going on at Prince - “shocked, shocked I say” - they followed up and it led them to VCK.  

What exactly  got them shocked? Hot men in underwear or they did not sell Chang beer?

[babybear2]

what happened to customers at VCK?

[macaroni21]

Thanks, Jasper for the videos and the translation.

I think some perspective is in order. It does look like a pure immigration raid, not any kind of clampdown against gay activities, even if the media reporting (not always within the police's control) goes tabloidy and speaks breathlessly about 50,000 baht a day for the top performer. That said this tidbit must have come from the police who might have been spinning a more "shocked!" story at their news conference.

The thing worth noting from about 1 minute 45 seconds of Jasper's second video is that all the guys being led to the police van were in similar black shorts, orange T-shirts, facemasks and black baseball caps. This indicates that the police brought these items so that the arrestees could conceal their identities (save those with exposed tattoos as hank75 pointed out). The media were either directed to, or themselves decided to blur and pixelate the other scenes, particularly those showing other masseurs not arrested. We should at least note this degree of consideration. If they had really wanted to make a homophobic case out of the incident, they needn't have taken all this trouble, and exposed everyone concerned, including Thai masseurs and their customers. So, at a policy level, it suggests that this was a pure immigration operation with no intention of any anti-gay campaign, but at the operational level, the police in charge perhaps couldn't resist injecting their own moralising.

For more perspective, what we need to know is whether similar immigration raids are conducted at girlie joints. Perhaps those following other forums like Thaivisa might tell us? If immigration raids are only targetted at gay establishments, that tells us a different story.

Some more factoids: Of the 11 foreigners arrested, there was 1 Cambodian, 2 Vietnamese, 4 Lao and 4 Burmese.

[GWMinUS]

14 hours ago, hank75 said:

Reminds me of when Mekhin was arrested 

OH? Tell us that Story...

[paulsf]

Raids are carried out at male and female establishments.   Also restaurants.   It’s immigration police. It’s foreign workers they are after.. these are the kind of businesses that attract these workers.    I think they hope big production raids will act as a warning .  That never works.   Unless the business gets closed there will always be workers to fill the jobs.    There was a time back in Twilight a couple of the gogo’s would only hire a Thai guys to avoid problems when police decided to check in.     Biggest week of the high season.  Good time for high profile raids to show off for the big boss.    

[DivineMadman]

32 minutes ago, macaroni21 said:

For more perspective, what we need to know is whether similar immigration raids are conducted at girlie joints.

The answer is yes they are all the time.  Invariably the raids that get the press attention are the ones where there are underage victims of human trafficking found.  

Once again just worth noting that it's black to business as usual at VCK and Prince - except of course for the time being with only Thai masseurs.  I don't think that this is part of an anti-gay anything.  (Personally, I think Big Oud is a bigger press whore than Big Joke was and Big Oud finds these particular raids get the extra press attention he so craves.  Also I think Prince might be about real estate, but that's pure speculation on my part.)

Technically, massage is a licensed profession in Thailand.  That was tool reportedly used to put Prince on a time out after two raids earlier this year. 

[mgb]

Orange shirt? really????????????????