Christopher Paul Neil, the 32-year-old English teacher seen molesting several children in recordings released on the internet, was arrested on charges of sexually abusing at least 12 boys in Southeast Asia.

The two-year Interpol investigation was finalized with success this morning as the police officers detained Neil in Nakhon Ratchasima province, 200 kilometers (125 miles) northeast of Bangkok, the commander of the Thai tourist police division said on an telephone interview.

Paisal Leusomboon, the police colonel who arrested the sexual molester, said the former English teacher born in New Westminster, British Columbia surrendered without resisting the officers.

"He said he knew he was on an Interpol arrest warrant," Paisal told Reuters. After being caught the only words he said were the confirmation of his name.

He was accompanied at the time by a 25-year-old "katoey", a term which in Thai means transvestite. The friendship of the two proved to be a key element in the solving of the investigation.

The transvestites in Pattaya saw the pictures of Neil in the airport were he was accompanied by the "katoey" and recognized the latter as the cross-dresser called Ohm.
Although the two had already fled the eastern seaboard town, investigators traced Ohm’s telephone number. After going through his call record they charted the pair's progress from Pattaya to Chaiyaphume and ultimately Nakhon Ratchasima.

The last phone call Ohm made was to a friend from Nakhon Ratchasima, ant the latter told the police that the transvestite was looking for a house for rent and gave them the address as well.

Though photos of Neil were found three years ago in Germany, he was only identified in the last few days, after security cameras in an airport recorded the English teacher.

Thai Interpol Police Superintendent Colonel Apichart Suriboonma said Neil entered Thailand on October 11. Police investigators believe that on Thursday he was still in the country. The Interpol released his picture hoping that more people will respond to the unprecedented global public appeal released last week and their info about the suspect will eventually lead to his capture.

Interpol also said in its statement issue last week that the suspect had appeared in 200 images on the internet sexually abusing young boys in Vietnam and Cambodia.

The first picture of the suspect was found three years ago in Germany. Those pictures were digitally altered in order to cover up the man's face with a swirl pattern, but computer specialists at Germany's federal police agency, the BKA successfully collaborated with Interpol's human trafficking team and managed to come up with images that could lead to the identification of the man.

The Interpol has a database of 520,000 images of child sex abuse submitted by 36 member states in connection with Operation Vico, as they codenamed the search of the pedophile because of the links to Vietnam and Cambodia.