Four Buddhist monks were arrested when a stash of porn, sex toys, a penis pump, and an escort list was found during a police raid at their temple in Thailand.
The religious leaders are said to have violated their monastic vows as they kept the banned items at the Phrom Sunthon Monastery in Chonburi province.
Police raided the property on January 27, following reports that the monks possessed firearms and drugs.
Dramatic footage of the raid shows officers combing through the bedrooms, where they found £2,070 in cash, a pistol, a penis enlargement pump, a contact list of prostitutes, and a DVD player with a porn disc still loaded inside.
Three monks also allegedly tested positive for methamphetamine.
Officers arrested Phra Supachai Jantawong, 35, Phra Wirat Mukdasanit, 45, and Phra Thanapol Maison, 59, and the temple abbott, Phra Photisang Taebmuan, who was found to be a Karen national unregistered in civil records.
All four monks have since been defrocked and banned from the religion.
Colonel Saksilp Kamnoedsin of the Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) of Chonburi said the raid was carried out after villagers complained of alleged drug and firearm use on temple grounds.
Dramatic footage of the raid shows officers combing through the bedrooms, where they found a penis enlargement pump
The religious leaders are believed to have violated their monastic vows as they kept the banned items, including a porn DVD, at the Phrom Sunthon Monastery in Chonburi province
During the police raid, cops also stumbled across £2,070 in cash
He said: ‘The three monks found to be using drugs will be sent to the police and relevant authorities for rehabilitation.
‘The abbot will be handed over to the police for questioning and then deported to his country of origin.’
Alleged drug user Supachai claimed he had been taking meth for around three years ‘to manage body pain from diabetes and high blood pressure’.
He said: ‘It’s for relieving nerve pain. When the pain is really bad, I take these kinds of pills. But I only use it for really severe pain.’
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Authorities said the three monks will be sent to drug rehabilitation, while the abbot was handed over to immigration officials for further investigation.
An estimated 93.4 per cent of the Thai population is Buddhist, with some 45,000 temples across Thailand, according to the National Office of Buddhism.
But public trust in the country’s Buddhist order has been eroded by crimes and scandals, including a femme fatale seduction scandal in July, where a string of high-ranking monks were caught funneling temple funds to a woman named Wilawan Emsawat, 35, known as Sika Golf.
Golf was arrested and admitted to blackmailing senior monks at popular temples in several provinces, as well as money laundering and receiving stolen goods.
Police said they had uncovered a cache of some 80,000 sexually explicit pictures and videos involving multiple senior monks at various temples across the country on devices found at her home.
One video shared by police shows a monk reclining on Golf on a sofa before she slaps him on the head.
Police raided the property on January 27, following reports that the monks possessed firearms and drugs
All four monks have since been defrocked and banned from the religion
Officers arrested Phra Supachai Jantawong, 35, Phra Wirat Mukdasanit, 45, and Phra Thanapol Maison, 59, and the temple abbott, Phra Photisang Taebmuan, who was found to be a Karen national unregistered in civil records
Five mobile devices were said to contain clips and stills of her engaged in sexual acts with several monks, some of whom were still wearing their traditional orange robes.
Police sources told the Bangkok Post at the time that Golf was the wife of a local politician who left her after learning that she phoned lovers at night and received donations given to the monks that they re-gifted to her.
She was reportedly renting a ‘luxury house’ for 30,000-40,000 baht (£687-£916) per month, and would hire a ‘luxury car’ to travel to temples to polish up her image.
Authorities understood that Golf would form close relationships with monks before demanding money to keep the details private.
She is believed to have raked in almost £9million by allegedly blackmailing religious figures with footage of her encounters.
