Beginning on September 24th of this year and continuing to this day, two
plain clothed police officers have been extorting money from Swiss national
Maja Steppler, 36, .
Maja
Steppler, the victim of a police extortion campaign.
Since early this summer, Maja and her Swiss friend, Frederico Novellini, 32,
have been living in an unnumbered house on Soi Nori with Maja’s 10 year old
daughter. Upon first coming to Pattaya, Maja admitted that she had been
addicted to Heroin. But, after a time, she succeeded in overcoming her
addiction.
On September 24th, 15 police officers, both uniformed and in plainclothes,
came to her house and told her they had received information that she had
heroin in her possession. After searching her house for more than 30
minutes, they found nothing and left.
On the same day, 2 plainclothes policemen, dressed in jackets and carrying
walkie-talkies and weapons, came to her house and demanded 200,000 baht.
They said if she did not comply, they would arrest her on charges of heroin
use.
When she told the officers that she had stopped using the drug and had none
in her possession, they attempted to arrest her. To avoid arrest, she
bargained with them and told them she had only 50,000 baht. The police kept
her hostage at her house and sent Frederico to the bank to withdraw the
money, then told her they would return for the remaining 150,000 baht at a
later date.
The same two police officers have been coming to her house on a regular
basis, threatening her with arrest, or worse, if she did not produce the
rest of the money. This became so distressing that she moved her family to
another house in South Pattaya, but were still hounded by the same 2 police
officers.
In desperation, she finally filed a complaint on October 21st with Major
Jongsak Yaemlamool, Commander of the Tourist Police. Maja described the
officers to Major Jongsak, and gave him the license number of their
motorcycle.
Unlike the quick action former Commander of the Tourist Police Lt. Col.
Somsak used to take, Major Jongsak chose the much easier wait and see path.
He gave her his telephone number and said the moment she was visited by
these two officers again to call the Tourist Police and he would send
officers over to arrest the two on charges of extortion. Major Jongsak told
Maja that (even though she had a positive description and had given him
their license plate numbers from their motorcycle) the Tourist Police had no
way of knowing who the officers were until they had a chance of apprehending
them. He promised her all aid and protection possible.
