Thai woman sentenced role in international sex trafficking ring

Nick Ferraro, Pioneer Press
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A Thai woman who helped run an international sex trafficking ring that operated in the Twin Cities was sentenced Monday in federal court for her role in the organization.

Sumalee Intarathong, 62, was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Donovan Frank in St. Paul to time served since her arrest in 2016 and $500,000 in restitution to the victims. She also agreed to be removed from the U.S. to Belgium or Thailand and will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement to carry out the court’s order.

Intarathong is the last of 38 defendants sentenced in the sprawling case, which was first announced in 2016, according to the U.S. attorney’s office for Minnesota.

Intarathong pleaded guilty last year to one count each of conspiracy to commit sex trafficking and conspiracy to engage in money laundering. She was a member of a criminal organization that recruited hundreds of impoverished young women from Bangkok, Thailand, to move to the U.S. and serve as sex workers.

The victims were signed to debt bondage “contracts,” which obligated them to work off a debt of between $40,000 and $60,000 as prostitutes, in exchange for a visa and travel to the U.S.

Allowed to keep only a fraction of the money they earned, the women essentially became the property of the organization.

She was arrested in Belgium in August 2016 and extradited to the U.S. in February 2021.

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