Senior Thai army officer wanted in migrant trafficking probe

Thai police General Aek Angsananont (left) answers a question from journalists next to Anti-Money Laundering Office secretary-general Seehanat Prayoonrat (right) at police headquarters in Bangkok on June 2, 2015. A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for a high-ranking army officer over human trafficking, police said on Tuesday, making him the first military figure to be implicated in the trafficking case. -- PHOTO: AFP.

BANGKOK (AFP): A Thai court has issued an arrest warrant for a high-ranking army officer over human trafficking, police said on Tuesday, making him the first military figure in junta-ruled Thailand to be implicated in the grim trade in migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh.

More than 3,500 hungry and bedraggled Rohingya Muslims, a persecuted minority in Myanmar, and Bangladeshi economic migrants, have arrived on Thai, Malaysian and Indonesian soil in recent weeks in a regional migration crisis.