Police Crackdown Nets Pattaya Foreign Sex Bar Owner

In the first night of the Pattaya police crackdown, bars were checked and arrests were made in Pattaya's Sunee Plaza, which attracts mostly a gay clientele.

With cooperation from the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), agents from the Department of Special Investigation (SDI) with cooperation from Pattaya Police, Chonburi Immigration Bureau and the Women and Children’s Protective Service agents based in Banglamung, the massive police force checked many bars then raided a particular bar snubbed by other Sunee Plaza owners and arrested the alleged owner Jean Eric Lopez of Pattaya and some of his staff.

An eyewitness walking through Sunee Plaza located behind TukCom IT Center and near Soi VC said, "The police swarmed seemingly out of nowhere.  They were on a mission.  They went in and out of many bars without incident, but when they got to two bars they really were looking for something. They found it and came out with a middle-aged white guy, a computer, a box of DVDs and some young boys."

Jean Eric Lopez, holding a French passport, is now charged with statutory rape stemming from activity in his bar. He was arrested a few hours ago for allegedly operating a bar in Pattaya’s Sunee Plaza that police say used underage boys for escort services and lewd stage shows and allegedly abused young boys and offered sex for pay to customers as an outcall service" from his bar.

If convicted, he may serve jail time of up to 7 years in Thailand, be blacklisted from ever returning and also have to serve time in his home country for the same crime perpetrated in Thailand under a special agreement between member states of the EU and the USA with Thailand and Cambodia.

“If you have sex with children or sell them into prostitution over there in Thailand you will do double time- there and here,” said an FBI agent based in Los Angeles, California.
 
According to a spokesman from the Sunee Plaza Association which is made up of more than 30 reputable businesses in Sunee Plaza, “He [Lopez] was banned from joining the group and his bar was one of the few plaguing the reputation of Sunee which is under renovation and upgrading.”

He added, “Our clients like to have drinks, dine and mingle for some fun and relaxation. They are as repulsed by what was going on in the bars with under aged boys as anyone would be. It needs to stop.  It brings drugs, crime and a sense of desperation to the area all caused by only a handful of places.”

A spokesman of Thailand Spice! Magazine, the only nationwide nightlife entertainment magazine in Thailand, said, "The Sunee Plaza area is definitely on the rebound as it cleanses itself of the few bad operators and may one day compete with the most famous gay-friendly entertainment area of Boyztown - always a must visit - and the evolving, sophisticated Jomtien Plaza area. If police raids it what it takes to speed up the process at Sunee, so be it.”

"Since 1998, Thailand Spice! has always been the magazine that promoted the best of gay nightlife and fine dining, day trekking and great hotels in all of Thailand, not the worst of it.  This is good to have the areas cleaned of the very few bad businesses in Sunee preying on the young,” said the Thailand Spice! magazine editor based in Pattaya.

Lopez, 47, has run several gay bars in Thailand that provide services mainly to foreigners. Pattaya Police also seized his computer and hundreds of pornographic videos and pictures in his possession.

This is the first night of raids that are expected at gay bars, beer bars and go go bars all around Pattaya which have “bar fines” and “short time rooms” and are owned by foreigners who may be part of some organized crime using “laundered” money.  

Bars with no illegal activity have no cause for concern, nor do patrons, said one leading police officer associated with the crackdown.