As anxiety spreads after a Korean college student was killed by a local crime organization in Cambodia, a case also occurred in Thailand in which a foreign woman was abducted by a human trafficking ring and found dead with her organs removed.
According to the U.K.'s Daily Mail and others on the 16th (local time), Vera Kravtsova, 26, from Minsk, Belarus, received a message online that "part-time models are being recruited in Thailand" and went to Bangkok, Thailand, to sign a modeling contract.
Immediately after arrival, Kravtsova was kidnapped by a local crime organization and taken to the Myanmar border area. Her passport and mobile phone were confiscated, and she was beaten and threatened while being forced to work on cybercrime-related tasks. The criminal group that took Kravtsova operated a lawless "camp" in northern Myanmar, a massive illegal cybercrime hub run through collusion between ethnic Chinese crime syndicates and local soldiers.
People brought here are reportedly confined behind barbed wire and forced to perform hard labor for more than 16 hours a day. Those who disobey orders or fail to reach target revenue are said to face beatings, torture, and threats of organ removal.
According to reports, Kravtsova was used in a "romance scam," approaching wealthy men by feigning romantic interest, building trust, and then taking their money. But when she failed to meet the set revenue target, the camp cut off all her outside activity.
Members of the group then contacted Kravtsova's family, saying, "She is already dead," and threatening, "If you want to at least get the body back, send $500,000 (about 710 million won)." When Kravtsova's family did not comply, they contacted them again, saying, "We already burned the body," and, "Do not look for her anymore."
According to Russian outlet SHOT, Kravtsova was sold to an organ trafficking ring, had her organs removed, and her body was incinerated.
After graduating from college, Kravtsova moved to St. Petersburg, Russia, and worked as a freelance model. She built her modeling portfolio in Vietnam, Indonesia, and China.
A Myanmar police official said, "From the beginning, she received a fake contract from a crime group, not a modeling agency, and was taken straight from Thailand to northern Myanmar and sold as a 'slave.'" A representative of a local human rights group said, "The case of this Belarusian model is not simple human trafficking but modern-day 'body trading,'" adding, "Tens of thousands of people are already widely dispersed and confined across Southeast Asia, including Myanmar, Cambodia, and Laos, in the same way."