A multinational human trafficking syndicate was exposed as 72 were charged by prosecutors in Thailand, three days before the State Department’s annual report on human trafficking in regions across the world (the New York Times report is here).

Southeast Asia specifically has drawn global awareness for trafficking abuse where some of the most vulnerable people are concentrated. The most high-profiled criminals are staple officials within the Thai government including a Thai Army general, Lt. Gen. Manas Kongpaen, and a spatter of other military officials, police officers, local politicians, and delegates.

Criminals were charged with 16 different counts of human trafficking. The case was labeled a transnational crime extending multinational borders involving “large human trafficking network covering many areas,” the prosecutors said in a statement.

Wanchai Roujanavong, a spokesman for the Office of the Attorney General, told reporters, “We will not let influential people rise above justice.”

Thailand investigators have been conducting a broad sweep into sex slaves crimes within its borders after graves with 30 bodies were found in southern Thailand in May. Migrants were also unearthed in 139 extra shallow graves purported to hold immigrants.

As more details were revealed in the investigation, an en masse of migrants from the Muslim enclave of Rohingya were fleeing from persecution and poverty in Myanmar and Bangladesh when they were stranded on boats off Thailand and Malaysia.

An additional faction of 32 suspects remain at large, and Thailand’s attorney general’s office released in a statement that they pursue extradition measures for those who escape abroad.

The State Department will issue its yearly Trafficking in Persons report on Monday. Last year, Thailand was downgraded to its lowest rank, Tier 3.