Kisan Mokhtan. A major Nepalese trafficker and circus owner

Last Monday evening The Grey Man, conducted its first successful operation on the Indian continent with its partner agency The Esther Benjamins Trust and the assistance of FSI Worldwide, resulting in the arrest of Kisan Mokhtan, a major trafficker of young children.  Nepalese police have been searching for Mokhtan for the last four years.  In this operation The Grey Man provided an intelligence operative to assist the local team and he was withdrawn just prior to the arrest.

The raid occurred on Mokhtan’s circus on Monday night.  The Esther Benjamins Trust had 15 signed statements from girls whom Mokhtan had trafficked in the past and were being sheltered in Hetauda. Two girls who had been reported as missing in Nepal were also found in Mokhtan’s circus.  The Esther Benjamins Trust Director, Philip Holmes provided some details of the operation

‘His small circus moved into Rajasthan for a festival last week and due to intense efforts of our combined team along with the Rajasthan police we were able to raid his circus on monday evening. Since India banned the use of wild animals in circuses many Nepalese children have been trafficked into Indian circuses each year where they are physically and sexually abused’.  The Esther Benjamins Trust has rescued over 150 of them.

It was a good outcome but the problem was going to be to get Mokhtan extradited back to Nepal. There is an extradition treaty between India and Nepal but no one has been extradited for 25 years.  Mokhtan could only be held for 48 hours and Esther Benjamins Trust and The Grey Man worked feverishly behind the scenes, calling in favours from anyone who had influence, to ensure that he wasn’t released.

At one stage the police actually detained our people which seemed to be an attempt at harassment and obstruction.  This is indicative of the problems we face in these countries where the police are often remiss in carrying out their duties and corruption is always a possibility.

Luckily a human rights lawyer was brought in and the Esther Benjamins Trust has now transported the families of girls previously trafficked by Mokhtan to Rajasthan to lodge formal complaints.  This should result in Mokhtan being charged with serious offences and hopefully jail time in India, followed by extradition to Nepal and jail time there as well.

A Grey Man covert team as well as two Grey Man intelligence operatives were in India for a few weeks leading up to the arrest.  This is a good start to our work in India and we hope to have more arrests and rescues there in the future. 

Well done to our people in the field and thanks to our partners The Esther Benjamins Trust (www.ebtrust.org.uk) and the assistance from FSI Worldwide (www.fsi-worldwide.com) who are an international security firm and ethical labour force recruitment company that uses former Ghurka soldiers in many roles.

John Curtis
President
The Grey Man organisation

Border town of Aranyaprathet

Aranyaprathet is a fairly non-descript border crossing point from Thailand into the town of Poi Pet on the Cambodian side.  It is the busiest crossing point into Cambodia and a key transit point for human traffickers.

On the evening of 13 September 2010 in Aranyaprathet, a joint operation between The Grey Man and the Royal Thai Police resulted in the rescue of four Cambodian girls on the Thai side of the border.  The girls were 14-15 years old and had been trafficked into Thailand for prostitution.

A three person Grey Man team had set up a sting operation the previous day but it fell through when the go-between became frightened and did not bring the girls he had promised.  It had been a frustrating month for the team with a number of leads ending in dead ends.

The team then changed to another target.  They had acquired video and audio surveillance of a brothel that had under-aged girls in it and called in a specialist Thai police unit.  In this brothel the girls’ rooms were padlocked and the windows covered in bars.

Bars on the windows The doors were padlocked.

After a thorough briefing between the two groups, the Grey Man operatives then re-entered the brothel with Police nearby ready to conduct a raid. 

The operatives continued their undercover roles, and once they ensured that the girls were still there, triggered a raid by the Police.  Twenty Anti-trafficking Police and three Grey Man personnel were involved in the operation.

15 year old rescued from the brothel

The mamasan (manager of the brothel) and a number of Thai males were arrested and the four girls are now in the hands of Thai government officials.

They will be moved to a government shelter in Bangkok where they will either be repatriated to Cambodia or sent to a Khmer vocational training centre.  Grey Man is looking into how to best assist the repatriation of the girls.

I would like to thank the Thai Police unit involved for their assistance.  Our team were very impressed with the level of their professionalism and our thanks also to the government of Thailand for setting up such a great unit. 

It seems that this particular specialist police unit were also impressed with The Grey Man team and intend to run further operations with us.  

Just a final worrying statistic, 46% of Cambodian kids trafficked into Thailand when interviewed said that the key figure who facilitated their trafficking was … their mother!!  Here in the West we may never understand what poverty can drive people to do but we were born lucky and safe so don’t waste time in judging these people … please just support us to help more kids.  

To this Grey Man team, consisting of former police and special forces people, thankyou for a job well done as I know how difficult the past month has been. 

John Curtis

President

These Armidale Class Patrol Boats are primarily tasked with border protection, fisheries patrols, immigration, customs and drug law enforcement operations, although two vessels are permanently assigned to protecting the oil and gas production facilities of the North West Shelf Venture. An Armidale class boat, the fictional HMAS Hammersley, appeared in the second and third seasons of Australian military drama series Sea Patrol.

Here at Grey Man we think the ship looks great and although Shane thinks that he and his crew are a little more rough around the edges, we think they are a great bunch of guys. Shane is by his own admission “the chubby grinning submariner (more shiny gold on my patch) in the front middle, the others are my lads”.

HMAS GLENELG at sea in Darwin

Captain and crew

Shane and his crew have been some of our most enthusiastic supporters with Able Seaman Brian Mobbs being continuously creative in raising charity money. According to Lt. Cdr Doolin, “So far Brian has had a poker competition, sold the rights to a swim-ex and charges people $2 every time we go to sea if they choose not to shave …. small amounts but he never lets up”. 

Recently, Captain and crew had a chance to wear their Grey Man T-shirts and the Captain had this to say: 

“Just a quick update as we have now left Colombo, Sri Lanka and as you can see we played the Sri Lankan Navy in cricket.  

Unfortunately we learnt that you should NEVER play cricket in the subcontinent and we were soundly defeated. In the end ‘cricket’ was the real winner on the day!! We put up a gallant fight and as you can see The Grey Man shirts were worn with pride (about 20 of us) and at least made us look the part. Next stop will be more cricket in India!!

My crew wear the shirts at sea, I will get a pic from my bridge with 90% of my guys in their shirts, they love the design and colour and I have sold out of nearly everything now!!”

Sri Lankan cricket

 

 

They lost but still winners

Last Sunday night our Director of Operations, ‘Tony’ approached a moto driver (motorcycle taxi) to discuss the possibility of accessing some young girls. The moto driver said he could supply the girls and took ‘Tony’ to a brothel in the countryside outside Phnom Penh. The results were inconclusive as the girls did not appear to be underage but with Asian girls it is often difficult to tell. ‘Tony’ declined the offer of being a client and was returned to the city. A few days later the moto driver contacted him and said he had two girls available who were young, so ‘Tony’ arranged to meet with him and immediately informed the local office of International Justice Mission (IJM) who arranged for the police to assist.

The Moto driver took ‘Tony’ to a nearby hotel where he met with a young Cambodian pimp who took ‘Tony’ to one of the hotel rooms. There were no girls visible but when the Cambodian was asked how old the girls were he opened the bathroom door and a 14 year old and ten year old (yes, 10!!) came out. They were Vietnamese girls who had been trafficked into Cambodia.

!4 and 10 year old Vietnamese girls rescued from a Cambodian pimp

A price was negotiated but ‘Tony’ said he would have to get extra cash from his hotel room. This was in order to extricate himself from the room in order to confirm to the police that the girls were actually present and that they were underage.

The Cambodian agreed and as soon as ‘Tony’ left he signalled the police and IJM.  He returned to the room on the pretext of paying the money and as per arrangements the police knocked on the door of the hotel room soon after ‘Tony’ had re-entered it. The police arrested the pimp and the moto driver. The children were taken into custody and placed with a shelter run by a British NGO.  Grey Man will fund their ongoing recovery and education and investigations are continuing to snare other traffickers.

This is our first operation in Cambodia and by all accounts a great success. It received widespread coverage in the Australian media and resulted in an overwhelming response from the Australian public. Grey Man would like to thank our Director of Operations (‘Tony’), IJM, the Cambodian Police and Grey Man supporters everywhere for allowing us to do what we do best.   What’s more with Australia Day happening the day after I can think of no greater tribute to our country on our National Day than that Australians put themselves in harm’s way to rescue kids in South East Asia.  We should all be proud. Well done!

John Curtis

Searching the suspec'ts room

Wietlisbach denied all charges and refused to say a word until his lawyer arrived.  A search of his room found an external flash drive and a digital camera contained pictures of unidentified naked boys.  Other forensic evidence was also collected.

Wietlisbach was denied bail and his court case will be scheduled for 2010.  A nice christmas present for Grey Man but no Happy New Year for Wietlisbach.

John Curtis

Wietlisbach arrested

Thai-Burmese border crossing at Mae Sai

We received this e-mail below from a gentleman in Mae Sai, on the Thai-Burmese border.  We met with him 6 months ago as part of increasing our intelligence network and recently it paid off.

‘Hi John

Late this afternoon we were informed by one of our children (boy aged about 10 yrs) who visits our Drop in Centre (DiC) that he has regularly been sexually abused by a man who also comes into our DiC. On making further enquires my staff inform me that this man has also abused three 3 young girls two sisters aged 9 & 12, another girl aged 7 and possibly a girl aged about 4………I do not know who I can trust in the local police as some would not deal with this situation in a professional way, therefore I do not know who to contact.  I am aware that you have trustworthly contacts and would appreciate some urgent advice……’

The children were part of the never-ending flow of children who are trafficked into begging gangs and end up homeless on the streets of Mae Sai.  Grey Man immediately put our Thai Director of Operations onto it.  Within a short space of time the children had been secured, taken to hospital to be checked, the police informed and children taken to be interviewed under the care of Grey Man personnel.  They were then taken to a shelter that we have good connections with for their protection. 

Luckily, the Burmese perpetrator was found to be in custody on another charge and we simply added rape and a variety of other charges to his sheet.  He will be sentenced very soon and will do jail time.  The children are safe and happy.  It isn’t usually as easy as this but we were very happy with the outcome.

The following recent email from the gentleman running the drop in centre says it all:

‘Dear John

Many thanks for your contribution in the recent situation, it was appreciated. I will definitely contact Grey Man should we encounter similar situations again.  The police handled the case professionally and it was in court in a record time. I would like to think that this was due to their concerns and commitment, however it is more likely because they knew your team was overseeing the operation.” 

Kind words and possibly true but we had good co-operation from the Mae Sai police and we thank them for their assistance.  They don’t always have the resources to follow up every case of abuse but they do their best.  Sometimes they just need a little help.

This was a good day.

John Curtis

Pattaya

Reliable information alleged that a group of foreign tourists were abusing young boys of 14-15 years of age.  Further investigation confirmed that a group of men, Swedish, English and Australian were involved. The Royal Thai Police, Nordic Police and Customs, Swedish National Crime police and Grey Man operatives began a joint investigation, codenamed Snapper.  

Joint planning for Operation Snapper

As it turned out, two of the gang were well known to Swedish police, due to their previous history.  On 12^th May, with the assistance of Grey Man funding and personnel, the CWD arrested three of the suspects at an apartment located in Banglamung, Pattaya. They were Swedish and British nationals all aged in their sixties. A further eight suspects are still at large, but Police have enough evidence to arrest them.  Two are known to have escaped Thailand: one a Western tourist and the other a Thai man known as Pan.  All are being hunted presently by International police.

Thailand’s Child Protection Division’s Police Major General Chaiwat Gaetworachai said that the arrested had abused many children in the Pattaya area.   During the arrests, Police officers found and confiscated sex toys, still and video cameras, computers and a photo album of naked children.  If found guilty they face long prison sentences.  Although a number of the ring are still at large, due to the fact that some were out of the country when the arrest warrants were issued, we believe they will all be caught in the near future and that the children of Pattaya are slightly safer due to our efforts. 

One of the young victims points out the suspects

Many boys were interviewed to gather evidence against these people and we respect their courage in being willing to make statements and testify in court. 

Every child abuser that we arrest prevents the future abuse of many children.  Our thanks to the CWD and the members of the Scandinavian Police units involved and especially to our Grey Man operatives who were instrumental in the arrest of these men.

These operations are funded by you so we can only do what you allow us to do.  A big thank you to all the Grey Man supporters worldwide who enable us to continue this great work to protect children.

John Curtis

The Story

ABC - GreyMan on Australian Story

In April 2009, an ABC-TV Australian Story film crew travelled to Northern Thailand to film some of The Grey Man (TGM) key people and partners at work. Next week you will have a glimpse into TGM life, meet the main players and learn how rescues are swiftly and daringly executed.

See where The Grey Man works, how intelligence is gathered and used. Share some of the success stories and meet Peng (not her real name), the girl who innocently almost fell prey to the illicit sex trade.

Broadcast Times

Australian Story is televised on ABC-TV Mondays at 8.00pm and repeated on Saturdays at 12.30pm. You can also see the show on ABC2 on Tuesdays at 8.00pm

If you happened to miss the broadcast - you can watch it “here”

Peng on the night she was rescued

She told us the other evening that if Grey Man had not been there on the night she was sold she would never have been able to see her mother again because of the shame she would have felt.  Luckily, Grey Man was there and Peng now has a promising future if she gets access to a good education.

Presently she is attending a Welfare school which is available to people on a low income and free to attend but it means that she has to live away from her mother.  These schools do not provide a quality education and Peng has the potential to go on to University.  She would like to become a nurse so that she can help other people.

Peng does not fall under the normal Grey Man guidelines for assistance because she was not sent to a shelter.  She was able to be returned to her mother without danger and we don’t normally get involved with assistance in these cases.

However, we do not want to waste her potential and so I am appealing to you for help.  To pay for her schooling at a preferred school for the next 2 years will cost around 15,000 baht per year.  That is only $600 per year or $50 per month.  Here is a chance for YOU to make a significant difference in the quality of life of another human being. 

So I urge you to consider that for a small amount of money by western standards, you can change one life for the better.  If you want to support Peng please contact me by e-mail at admin@thegreyman.org and we will work out the details.  Even small individual contributions will quickly add up to the required amount and anything extra will go towards her continuing education.  Just let us know by e-mail that you want your contribution to go towards Peng’s education.  Thank you in advance for being in the arena with us and not just a spectator.

John

Come and enjoy a casual get together over breakfast with supporters of TGM. Meet co-founder Russell Hawksford who is travelling to Thailand in April to film with the ABC TV program Australian Story.

The Fundraiser will be held at:

ROCKS RIVERSIDE PARK
Crusher Pavilion
Counihan Road
Seventeen Mile Rocks
Queensland 4073
Australia

Please RSVP events@thegreyman.org by Monday 31st March 2009. For further details, please download the PDF attachement by clicking HERE.

See you there