Two Ugandan women were arrested at a hotel for allegedly working as prostitutes in Pattaya.

The pair were detained in a sting operation amid a crackdown on the sex trade in the Thai 'Sin City' on September 23.

Undercover officers arranged a fake transaction before arresting the women, aged 31 and 40, at their hotel.

The raid came following reports they were pestering tourists while offering sex services along the notorious Pattaya Beach. When the tourists declined, the women reportedly insulted them and attacked them.

Police Major Somchanok Chaiprasertsakul of Tourist Police Division 1 said: 'They were charged with contacting, persuading, introducing themselves to, following, or harassing a person in a public place for prostitution, in a manner that causes a nuisance to the public. We have apprehended them to proceed with further legal action.'

In May, officers arrested seven Uzbek and six Ugandan women, some of whom were found with student permits or expired visas. They were reportedly carrying packs of condoms and lubricant bottles in their bags.

The prostitutes were reportedly known to loiter under the palm trees lining the busy road, where they aggressively offer sex services to passers-by.

Police called the crackdown 'Operation Coconut Ghosts' after the coconut trees that line the beach and the way prostitutes stand underneath them 'like ghosts'.

Former fishing village Pattaya became popular with American troops on 'rest and relaxation' breaks in the 1950s and 1960s when the U.S. military had bases in Thailand while fighting Communism in Vietnam. Rural families are said to have even dressed their sons as women to cash in on the gold rush.

The handful of bars in the coastal town quickly grew and it is now the world's biggest sex holiday destination, with round-the-clock prostitution and drugs - a modern-day Sodom and Gomorrah rife with crime and debauchery.

Government chiefs have attempted to clean up the city but regular violence, depravity and claims of corruption continue to blight its reputation.