Bangkok Street Crime

Intellectual property police raided South Pattaya’s Tukcom electronics mall,

2012-05-25T17:29:00.001+01:00

Intellectual property police raided South Pattaya’s Tukcom electronics mall, arresting five people and seizing stocks of counterfeit name-brand mobile telephones and phone cases.

Sirithip Panrat, 23; Saisunee Areeyachai, 32; Sapudee Saeteng, 25; Nopadol Sae-lee, 21; Sa-rawut Aoeiwan, 19, and a Thai man without identification were apprehended in the May 16 crackdown.

Intellectual property police arrested 6 vendors of knockoff phones operating out of Tukcom Pattaya.

Region 2 Intellectual Property investigator, Lt. Col Chaiyadit Punyamuansakul said the dealers were charged with counterfeiting intellectual property, selling fake items and violating trademarks.

Truck driver shot in attempted hijacking

2012-05-25T17:27:00.001+01:00

A Chonburi truck driver was injured after being shot during an attempted hijacking in Pong. Karun Chumnak, 28, suffered a single wound to the back May 4 on Highway 36. He was treated and released from Banglamung Hospital. The driver of the 18-wheeler told police he had been pulled over by a car blowing a siren and driven by a man dressed like a plainclothes police officer. Thinking it was yet another shakedown by Thai highway police, Karun immediately offered a 50 baht bribe, but the suspect refused, ordering the driver to exit the cab. Having heard stories of truck hijackings in the area, Karun refused. The suspect pulled a gun and fired once into the cab’s window. Karun said he hit the gas to escape and the would-be hijacker fired again. Police said a Pluakdaeng gang has been victimizing trucks in that area.

A Danish man has been arrested for allegedly dealing marijuana out of a Soi Honey Inn bar.

2012-05-25T17:26:00.001+01:00

Claus Andersen, 37, was apprehended in a May 11 sting operation after allegedly selling 15 grams of weed to a foreigner cooperating with authorities. The drugs and the 1,000 baht note used to purchase the grass were confiscated as evidence.

Police said Andersen admitted to dealing drugs, saying he bought the marijuana from another foreigner he knows only as “Martin.” Police are now expanding their investigation to catch the bigger dealer.

Claus Andersen allegedly was caught selling marijuana to an undercover foreigner.

Man shot on motorbike in central Pattaya

2012-05-25T17:24:00.001+01:00

police are searching for two men who killed a well-known partier as he drove his motorbike through central Pattaya. Chanaphol Jantharaksa, 20, was found slumped over his pink Yamaha Fino May 13 about 200 meters from the Baan Bung noodle shop on Central Road where he was shot in the neck and shoulder. Witness Rachanee Panthong, 24, gave police a description of two men on another pink motorbike she saw shoot Chanaphol and escape toward Sukhumvit Road. Police put up roadblocks but were unable to locate the suspects. Pattaya Police Superintendent Col. Thummanoon Mankhong indicated Chanaphol was well known to police for his repeated fights and frequent all-night partying.

An Omani man who demanded a refund from an underage prostitute is behind bars after the girl’s aunt was called in to sort out their dispute.

2012-05-25T17:22:00.001+01:00

Majid Mohammed Said Al Gheilani, 50, was charged with separating a minor from her guardian May 11 after the girl’s aunt, Lamun Sidachomphu, was called to Pattaya Police Station to help sort out a confrontation between the Omani and her niece.

Majid Mohammed Said Al Gheilani was arrested for separating a minor from her guardian.

The teenager told police Al Gheilani had picked her up on Beach Road five days earlier, offering her 1,000 baht a day for a month to stay with him. After five days, however, the Omani had a change of heart and demanded the return of 2,000 baht cash and a 2,750 baht mobile phone he had bought for her.

The girl refused and the argument ended up before police. The girl contacted her aunt, who insisted Al Gheilani be charged with taking the underage girl. She then feigned ignorance of what her niece had been doing, asking why a hotel would allow a minor to go to the Omani’s hotel room.

Gheilani claimed he didn’t know the girl was 17 and put up a defiant front, telling police he wasn’t afraid to be jailed. The police took him at his word and locked him up.

Briton 'with foetuses' arrested in Thailand

2012-05-18T14:04:00.001+01:00

British citizen has been arrested in Bangkok for possessing human foetuses, Thai police have confirmed. The man, thought to be of Taiwanese origin, was arrested from the city's Chinatown area on Thursday. Thai police said the foetuses were packed in the man's luggage. It is not known why the arrested man was in possession of the foetuses.

Suspected serial killer Nirut Sonkhamhan hanged himself in prison on Wednesday morning

2012-04-23T04:30:00.001Z

Suspected serial killer Nirut Sonkhamhan hanged himself in prison on Wednesday morning, but the events leading to his suicide were set in motion last month, when the Mirror Foundation noticed an odd pattern of disappearances in the South.

RIGHT Convenience store surveillance camera footage shows Nirut Sonkhamhanwalking in tobuycoffee,which police believed he would mix with insecticide and give to his victims.

LEFT Patanapong Sriphinphro, head of the CSD’sSubdivision 5,wholed the investigation.

The organisation, dedicated to finding missing persons, noticed that several pickup truck drivers had vanished under ominously similar circumstances.

The drivers all offered rental services. They all went missing between Prachuap Khiri Khan and Chumphon. And all were hired to go to the same destination.

This information was shared with investigators at the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), who immediately suspected the cases were not only linked, but could lead to a trail of murder.

As the investigators dug deeper, they began to unearth convincing evidence that the missing drivers had been killed by one man.

The first piece of the puzzle was a police report recording the murder of Julsil Salangsing, a driver in Chumphon's Tha Sae district, in early March.

His face was disfigured after being beaten with a rock, but the cause of death was determined to be poisoning with insecticide.

Two more truck drivers, Wachara Suebchuea and Robkwaen Klapsoon, were also missing in the same province.

All three had been hired to go to the same destination in Chumphon. Investigators were certain of a link.

On March 17, Chumphon police informed the CSD of the discovery of another body, thought to be a victim of the same killer.

Jamnong Srirachart, a pickup truck driver for hire, had died from insecticide poisoning as well. The CSD realised this was the fourth victim of a serial killer.

The CSD expanded its investigation to cover other southern provinces. Sure enough, they received reports from police in Cha-am district of Phetchaburi province of two pickup truck drivers who had been poisoned recently.

But Phaithoon Pattalapho and Montree Kalam had survived. The two told police they had cheated death in January and March respectively, at the hands of a man who had asked them to transport something to Chumphon.

Their testimony provided the evidence investigators had been looking for to pinpoint the murderer, and a warrant was issued for the arrest of Nirut, 43, a native of Songkhla province.

The CSD were confident they had identified their man, who was also the subject of an arrest warrant over the death of a 67-year-old woman in Kalasin.

The woman's body was dumped in a river and some of her valuables stolen by her killer, police said.

On April 9 another corpse was discovered _ yet another pickup truck driver.

Somsak Srijampa was found dead in Prachuap Khiri Khan, his manner of death leading the CSD to believe he too had been killed by Nirut.

The CSD believe Nirut stole his victims' trucks and sold them to a gang in Hat Yai district of Songkhla.

After finishing his business he would fly from Hat Yai to hide in Bangkok for a while, before hunting for a new victim.

In his most recent trip, surveillance cameras footage showed Nirut taking a pink taxi from the airport.

The licence plate of the vehicle was captured clearly on the airport's cameras, making it easy to track down the taxi driver.

The driver vividly remembered the passenger he dropped off at a Big C department store in Nakhon Pathom.

Last Monday, a witness helped police locate Nirut, who was staying in a rented apartment. Police captured him at the property that afternoon, confiscating a bottle of powdered insecticide, 17,600 baht in cash, and the clothes he wore on the day he supposedly killed his latest victim.

Police said Nirut claimed he spent most of the money he made from selling the stolen trucks on gambling.

"I think he was the serial killer... he confessed to killing all of them. Two people are still missing because he could not remember exactly where he dumped their bodies at night," said Patanapong Sriphinphro, head of the CSD's Subdivision 5 and leader of the investigation.

Nirut tried to kill himself in custody on the day of his arrest, and was successful in his second attempt, hanging himself with his shirt while detained in Prachuap Khiri Khan on Wednesday.

Police crackdown on illicit drugs at Na Khon Si Thammarat prison

2012-04-23T04:28:00.003Z

The police confiscated more than 1,700 methamphetamine pills and almost 300 mobile phones in a pre-dawn raid at Na Khon Si Thammarat prison. The deputy director–general of the Corrections Department, Sophon Thitithammarak, and Nakhon Si Thammrat Governor Wirote Jiwarangsan told a news conference on Sunday that the early morning raid by 650 commandos and police officers at the prison found 280 mobile phones and tablets, 1,700 pills of methamphetamine and 50 grammes of crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, in the prison. Ten sets of drug paraphernalia, gambling equipment, knives and 47,000 baht in cash were also seized. Mr Sophon said he would propose Sunday’s operation to suppress illegal drugs and forbidden items in Nakhon Si Thammarat as a model for other prisons nationwide. Meanwhile, Narong Yongnarongdejkul, head of Na Khon Si Thammarat prison, was transferred to an inactive post. Pol Maj Gen Ronnapong Saikaew, commander of the provincial police station said about 10 officials are allegedly involved in the case and police are gathering evidence to seek arrest warrants for them, along with two inmates who were allegedly major drug traders at the prison.

Police crackdown on illicit drugs at Na Khon Si Thammarat prison

2012-04-23T04:28:00.001Z

Pattaya Drug Dealing Brit-Cum English Teacher Caught

2012-04-23T04:26:00.001Z

Pol. Capt. Suphan Jaiharn, Deputy Inspector said that he knew that Mr. Steven Palmer was an English teacher at Singsamut school and was selling ya-ice to customers in Pattaya. Mr. Steven Palmer confessed that he teaches English at famous school but during school holidays he didn’t teach and stayed in a house that he had bought in Pattaya. He bought the ya-ice from a friend in Bangkok, at first he bought only for personal use but later he ran out of money so he had to sell the house and move to a rental room and Mr.Steven started selling ya-ice to beer-bar prostitutes and tourists in Pattaya. Mr.Steven is charged with sales and consumption of crystal methamphetamine. He has been detained at Pattaya police station and will to be prosecuted according to the Thai law.

2012-04-17T07:32:00.001Z

British terror supergrass sentence cut by two years

2012-04-16T16:50:00.001Z

jailed British terrorist has had his sentence cut by two years in a supergrass deal after giving evidence about an al Qaeda-linked “martyrdom” plot in New York, it was revealed today. Former teacher Saajid Badat was jailed for 13 years in 2005 for plotting with shoe bomber Richard Reid to blow up a transatlantic airliner in 2001 in what an Old Bailey judge said was a “wicked and inhuman” plot. He has now had his term reduced by two years under the first “supergrass” deal involving a terror convict, after providing intelligence to US prosecutors investigating an alleged plot to blow up the New York subway on the eighth anniversary of the 9/11 attack. Details of the deal — kept secret for more than two years — were revealed today by the Crown Prosecution Service as a trial of the alleged al Qaeda plotters began in New York. Defendant Adis Medanjanin, a 27-year-old Bosnian-born US citizen, is charged with conspiring to use a weapon of mass destruction, conspiring to commit murder in a foreign country, and providing “material support” to al Qaeda. He is said to have had terrorist training in Pakistan in 2008 and then returned to begin a plot to use beauty parlour chemicals to blow up the subway. Badat, from Gloucester, joined Reid’s shoe bomb conspiracy but pulled out at the last minute.

Western embassies targeted in Afghanistan attacks

2012-04-15T14:37:00.001Z

Gunmen have launched multiple attacks across the Afghan capital Kabul. Western embassies in the heavily-guarded, central diplomatic area are understood to be among the targets as well as the parliament building in the west. There are reports that up to seven different locations have been hit. The Taliban has admitted responsibility, saying their main targets were the British and German embassies. There is no word at this stage on any casualties.

Taliban free hundreds from Pakistan prison

2012-04-15T14:31:00.001Z

Hundreds of prisoners are believed to have escaped from a jail in northwest Pakistan after it was attacked by anti-government fighters armed with guns and rocket-propelled grenades. Some of those who escaped from the facility in the town of Bannu, in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, early on Sunday morning were "militants", an intelligence official told the Reuters news agency. "Dozens of militants attacked Bannu's Central Jail in the early hours of the morning, and more 300 prisoners have escaped," Mir Sahib Jan, the official, said. In Depth Profile: Pakistani Taliban "There was intense gunfire, and rocket-propelled grenades were also used." Many of those who escaped following the raid were convicted Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) fighters, Al Jazeera's Kamal Hyder reported from Lahore. A prison official in Bannu confirmed that "384 prisoners have escaped". A police official identified one of the inmates who escaped as a "dangerous prisoner", who took part in one of the attempts to kill the former president, Pervez Musharraf. The TTP, an umbrella organisation for anti-government groups that are loosely allied with the Taliban in Afghanistan and al-Qaeda, took responsibility for the attack. A spokesman for Hakeemullah Mehsud, TTP's leader, confirmed to Al Jazeera that the group was responsible for the attack. Another Taliban spokesman told Reuters: "We have freed hundreds of our comrades in Bannu in this attack. Several of our people have reached their destinations, others are on their way.". Our correspondent said the attack took place in the early morning and had resulted in an exchange of fire that had left several people wounded. "After the attack the paramilitary and regular military forces came to that location and tried to surround the area," he said. "They have arrested up to a dozen men, but most of the people have indeed escaped." The injured were rushed to a local hospital in Bannu. Sources told Al Jazeera that as many as 150 fighters were involved in the attack. After blowing up the gates of the main prison at around 1:30am local time (20:30 GMT on Saturday), they entered the compound and freed the inmates, the sources said. The attackers had arranged for the transportation of the inmates from the facility. A police official told Reuters that Bannu's Central Jail held 944 prisoners in total, and that six cell blocks had been targeted in the attack.

Bo Xilai's political death knell has sounded across China as newspaper front pages and hourly news bulletins trumpeted his disgrace and his wife's detention for the suspected murder of the Briton Neil Heywood.

2012-04-11T11:22:00.001Z

Bo Xilai, right, with his wife, Gu Kailai, who is suspected of killing Neil Heywood. Photograph: AP

The scandal that toppled the high-profile former leadership contender is the biggest political upheaval in China since the general secretary Zhao Ziyang was ousted following the Tiananmen democracy protests in 1989. It comes months before a once-a-decade leadership transition.

The official party newspaper, People's Daily, urged people to rally around the top leadership, saying Bo had damaged the cause and image of both party and state. But while investigations into the couple are ongoing, news coverage also sought to draw a line under events, with a Global Times article saying the country had "steadily overcome a bump" ahead of the 18th party congress this autumn, which will unveil the new leadership.

The news agency Xinhua has said Bo is under investigation by central party officials for "serious disciplinary violations" – a statement that has often been followed by criminal corruption charges against leaders in the past.

Bo was dismissed as party secretary of the south-western city of Chongqing – where Heywood died last November – several weeks ago, but had held on to his politburo and central committee seats, apparently because leaders had not agreed on how to handle him. Many believe that was related to horse-trading before the autumn power transition as well as Bo's powerful connections as the "princeling" son of a renowned Communist party veteran.

The scandal was set in motion in February when Bo's ally and former police chief Wang Lijun fled to the US embassy in Chengdu, where he is believed to have told diplomats he had angered Bo by confronting him with suspicions over Heywood's death. Wang is now under investigation.

But many believe rivals and opponents were already seeking to damage Bo.

Jean-Pierre Cabestan of Hong Kong University suggested Wang's flight, while deeply embarrassing to Chinese leaders, was merely "the last straw on the camel's back". Analysts say Bo alienated senior party figures by attempting to leverage popular support to win promotion in the leadership transition.

"He created a coalition of everyone wanting to get rid of him because he became a 'troublemaker' and a factor of division," said Cabestan.

He suggested it was also "a clear victory for reformists" at the top of the party who are pressing for change.

"Behind this case is a power struggle," said Zhang Ming, a liberal scholar at Renmin University in Beijing.

"Bo broke the rules and greatly deviated from the [usual] track … This shows that the struggle has intensified."

Wu Qiang, a political scientist at Tsinghua University, said Bo's populism had been a threat: "This is a cleaning-up among princelings," he added.

Xinhua has said Bo's 51-year-old wife, Gu Kailai, and a worker from the couple's home are "highly suspected" of killing Heywood. It added that Gu and the couple's son Bo Guagua had been on good terms with the 41-year-old British businessman but that there had been a conflict over economic interests.

Britain had already asked China to reinvestigate the death last November, following suggestions of suspicious circumstances. Family members in China and the UK have dismissed the idea of foul play and said he died of a heart attack.

Heywood's widow was at their home in a blossom-lined, upmarket housing compound in the northern suburbs of Beijing on Tuesday, but did not answer the door. Her late husband's silver Jaguar, bearing a Union Jack sticker, was parked in the driveway.

"No one is home," said a man in plain clothes who said he was head of security for the compound.

Britain and the US were briefed on the announcements shortly before they were made public.

William Hague has welcomed the reinvestigation, telling reporters: "It's a death that needs to be investigated, on its own terms and on its own merits, without political considerations."

Like many developments in the case, Tuesday night's bombshell announcements were presaged by a bout of speculation about such moves on the country's microblogs.

Despite censorship, many used the services to praise and attack Bo on Wednesday.

"Such a good official. He did so many good things for people … How much do the bad guys hate him!" wrote one internet user.

"He wanted to restore the cultural revolution. He even criticised and fought against his own father [during the cultural revolution]. Where is his goodness? I don't get it!" argued another.

A third noted simply: "What happened in Chongqing told us that no matter what is right or wrong, it is important to stand on the winning side."

Indonesia on tsunami alert after quake

2012-04-11T11:19:00.001Z

Indonesia has issued a tsunami warning after an 8.6 magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra, triggering concern across the Indian Ocean region. The US Geological Survey (USGS) said the quake occurred at 2.38pm local time. The epicentre was 434km south-west of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, and occurred at a depth of 23km. The survey initially recorded the earthquake as 8.9 magnitude, but later downgraded it to 8.6. More Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono downplayed the threat of a tsunami. He stressed that no damage had been reported so far. The government dispatched the head of the country’s disaster management agency to Banda Aceh. “[The] early warning system is working well,” Mr Yudhoyono told reporters at a press conference in Jakarta where he was meeting British prime minister David Cameron. Some scientists said the type of earthquake reduced the odds of a tsunami. Bruce Presgrave of the USGS told the BBC that the earth had moved horizontally, not vertically, meaning less water would have been displaced. “We can’t rule out the possibility, but horizontal motion is less likely to produce a destructive tsunami,” Mr Presgrave said. The quake was felt across the Indian Ocean from Indonesia and Vietnam to India. The USGS recorded at least three aftershocks in the region, one of which was magnitude 8.2. The southern Indian city of Chennai closed its port, while Phuket, a Thai island popular with tourists, closed its international airport as residents of the island and other southern Thai areas were ordered to higher ground. In Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam’s financial centre, some high-rise office buildings were briefly evacuated before people returned to work. Tata Consultancy Services, India’s largest IT outsourcing group by revenues, said it had sent home about 40,000 people working in the eastern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. “As a measure of extreme caution, we have evacuated all our employees from two of our large facilities around Chennai,” TCS said in a statement. Sasidhra Reddy, vice-president of India’s National Disaster Management Authority, told local TV channels that the his agency virtually ruled out the possibility of a tsunami hitting the Indian coast. A milder shock hit India’s major metro areas, including the capital New Delhi and Mumbai, the financial hub, and Bangalore, the nation’s IT centre. The epicentre of the quake was about 200km from that of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami that left 170,000 dead or missing in Indonesia, while taking a total of about 230,000 people in 13 Indian Ocean nations. That tsunami was triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake that hit the day after Christmas. In January this year, the same area was hit by a 7.3 magnitude earthquake that prompted a tsunami warning. No damage was reported, and authorities lifted the warning within two hours. Indonesia has been hit by several deadly quakes with a magnitude of greater than 7.0 since the 2004 disaster. The latest quake comes just a year after a 9.0 magnitude earthquake occurred off the northeastern coast of Japan, triggering a huge tsunami that devastated communities along hundreds of kilometres of the country’ north-east coast. The unexpected scale of the tsunami overwhelmed sea walls and other defences along what is one of the world’s most fortified coasts, wiping out large areas of towns and villages, destroying ports and sparking the world’s worst nuclear crisis in 25 years. The disaster left nearly 19,000 people dead or missing, but experts say that many more saved themselves by quickly moving to higher ground or tall buildings after the earthquake, a response that was the result of local memories of past tsunami and regular emergency drills.

Baggage handlers to strike at Easter

2012-03-29T15:32:00.001Z

Baggage handlers at Stansted Airport are to strike over Easter in a row over pay, the GMB union announced today. The move follows an overwhelming vote in favour of industrial action by 150 GMB members employed by Swissport after the union claimed that shift changes would lead to wage cuts of up to £1,000. The GMB said strikes will be held on Good Friday, Easter Saturday and Easter Monday, threatening disruption to passengers flying on holiday for the holiday break. GMB official Gary Pearce said: "GMB members have voted overwhelmingly for strike action and for action short of a strike. "Up to now the company has been intent on imposing these changes without agreement and this is completely unacceptable, as this vote shows. "GMB has offered several alternative shift patterns and working arrangements but the company refuses to listen so far. "I have notified Swissport of the ballot result and I have asked them for more talks to try to avert action over these pay cuts. "GMB members consider that Swissport is attempting to make savings at their expense and they are not willing to agree to this. "Unless there is urgent talks and a settlement, this vote for action this will result in disruption over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend. "The travelling public need to be aware that it has been this aggressive move by Swissport to cut our members pay at a time of high inflation that has led to this strike vote. "If the strike goes ahead, Swissport is entirely to blame for the disruption."

14-year-old girl who was kidnapped and sent to Thailand is traumatised and unable to speak to the police.

2012-03-22T09:10:00.002Z

Shah Alam OCPD Asst Comm Zahedi Ayob said the girl was in hospital and responding well to treatment.

"However, she cannot remember much. She only told us that she was abducted in a white van from Section 9," he told reporters at the district police headquarters here yesterday.

The teen was found with five other girls from Myanmar at the Hua Lampong train station in Bangkok on March 11 and arrived back home on Monday.

"We hope the Thai authorities will send the Myanmar citizens here so that we can probe further. We are investigating if these teenagers were also kidnapped the same day that the girl was abducted," ACP Zahedi said.

He refused to confirm if the teen was kidnapped by a child sex trafficking syndicate, but said the case was being investigated under Section 366 of the Penal Code for kidnapping for the purpose of prostitution.

ACP Zahedi said the Myanmar teenagers, aged between 15 and 17, were currently under the custody of UNHCR in Bangkok.

The Form Three girl was abducted on Jan 30 after her mother dropped her off at a bus stop here at around 1pm. When her daughter did not return home, the 37-year-old mother lodged a police report the following day at the Shah Alam police headquarters.

On March 12, the girl called her mother to say that she was in Thailand and had escaped from her captors.

Pattaya Police is hunting a barbaric gang that alledgedly cut off Cambodian children’s tongues and removed their larynxes before forcing them to beg in Pattaya.

2012-03-22T09:07:00.000Z

A Pattaya Daily News journalist was informed by social & welfare officers who had detained a seven-year-old mutilated Combodian boy (he could not tell his name ), the boy was mutilated, his tongue was cut off and had scars of primitive surgery on his neck. It looked like his larynx had been removed.

This boy was arrested while he was roaming around in Pattaya begging for money.

The officers brought the boy to the childrens welfare center last year. The boy was always tense and paranoid, he could not speak.

The officers from the national center for prevention and suppression of human trafficking came to question him. They told the child to point at the answers written on the paper: “Yes” and “No” in Cambodian.

It was a tragic story. He had been a normal young boy in Cambodia. But when he crossed to Thailand. He was suddenly mute. He pointed to his cut tongue with terrified eyes. On his neck there was a trace of surgery, size of a little finger which made the officer believe that they had removed his larynx.

The boy said that there were more boys of his age, also forced to work as beggers. They were all handicapped, their arms and legs had been cut off.
The gangs alledgedly abducted the children and cut off their tongues, arms, or legs to make them crippled and they would be easy to to control and people wold pity them and give them money.

The police have mobilized their forces to find the gang and arrest them.

Mr. Santi Prompat, the Minister of the Social Development and Human Security went to Hanoi, Vietnam to join the meeting of ministers in the Mekong region. Prevention of human trafficking or the 3rd COMMIT meeting with ministers from Cambodia, China, Burma and Vietnam participating. The meeting was held on February 15-16.

Mr. Prompat presented the story of the Cambodian beggar. A victim of human trafficking. He urged the concerned ministers to solve the problem as soon as possible.

Missing M’sian girl took lift into Thailand from stranger

2012-03-22T08:26:00.001Z

Thai immigration police investigations have indicated that a 14-year-old Malaysian girl and her five Rohingya friends had taken a lift from a stranger in Malaysia near the Malaysia-Thai border before entering Thailand illegally. The six have since been rescued by the Thai police. Deputy Commander of Immigration Bureau Investigation Centre Pol Col Chartchai Lamsaeng said Wednesday, the six took the ride on a Malaysian-registered van offered by a Malaysian man near the border on March 8. The five Rohingyas comprised four boys and a girl, aged between 14 and 16. The six were friends and know each other. "They were given drinks by the man and fell asleep shortly," Chartchai, who led the investigation into the case, told Bernama here. He said, they could only remember passing through Hat Yai, Petchaburi or Nakhon Phatom and ended up at Hua Lamphong in the capital. "We are surprised how they could pass through the border checkpoint without any travel document," he said, adding it was unclear whether the teenagers intended to enter Thailand when they took the van ride. "The man even took them to a mosque in Hua Lamphong. However, it was not clear what happened to the man after that as the teenagers made their way to the Hua Lamphong Train Station." Chartchai said, some vendors near the railway station gave them money to buy train tickets to return to Malaysia. They were caught by the police at the station as they failed to produce valid travel documents and were sent to an immigration police office here, he added. The immigration police later contacted the Malaysian Embassy here. "Our investigations showed that all six were safe and not harmed or abused by the man," said Chartchai, adding that the immigration police would investigate the case under human trafficking law, which carried a penalty of between five and 10 years imprisonment. "We managed to get a sketch of the suspect based on information given by the teenagers. Thai and Malaysian police are working on this case," he said. He said the Thai authorities were trying to determine if an international crime syndicate was involved in this case. An initial news report from Malaysia stated the girl had told her mother during a telephone conversation on March 12, that she and the rest were abducted and taken into Thailand before they were rescued by the Thai authorities at the railway station on March 11.

British man, wife killed at Thai resort

2012-03-14T17:11:00.001Z

POLICE say a British man and his Thai wife have been robbed and beaten to death at a seaside resort south of Bangkok. Police Major General Wichean Tantawiriya says three Thai men - a security guard and chef at the resort and their friend - were arrested today and had confessed to killing the couple and taking a mobile phone and 5000 baht ($155). Wichean says the bodies of Michael Raymond, 68, and Suchada Bowkamdee, 52, were discovered yesterday in their bungalow at the Jack Beach Resort in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, 350km south of Bangkok. He says they had checked in a day earlier. Wichean says two of the three suspects were addicted to methamphetamine, a stimulant, and needed money to buy drugs.

Mexico Arrests Boss of La Mano con Ojos Gang

2012-03-03T10:29:00.001Z

Mexican authorities have arrested the La Mano con Ojos (The Hand with Eyes) drug gang’s reputed leader, who confessed to ordering the murders of 10 people. The arrest of Marco Antonio Hernandez Garcia was made near the Villa Olimpica neighborhood of southern Mexico City, the capital’s district attorney, Jesus Rodriguez, told reporters. Hernandez Garcia, alias “El Comandante,” who was detained Thursday along with bodyguard Gustavo Moreno Diaz, confessed to ordering the killings of 10 people “whose bodies were mutilated – some incinerated – and abandoned in different parts of the capital,” Rodriguez said. The victims, all decapitated and found with threatening messages alongside them, were suspected rivals involved in the local drug trade, the DA said. The suspect told authorities that he took over leadership of La Mano con Ojos after the arrest last August of Oscar Oswaldo Garcia Montoya, alias “El Compayito,” who confessed to participating directly in 300 homicides and ordering 600 others. La Mano con Ojos operates mainly in the central state of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City, and is known for using extreme violence against its victims, most of whom have been decapitated. The Mexico City DA’s office will ask a judge to order Hernandez Garcia and Moreno Diaz held in preventive detention for their alleged responsibility in the multiple homicides. Clashes pitting drug cartels against each other and the security forces have claimed more than 50,000 lives in Mexico – according to media tallies – since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon took office and militarized the struggle against the drug gangs.

Free at last: Longest-serving farang at 'Bangkok Hilton' is checking out

2012-03-03T09:33:00.001Z

Like most prisons, Bang Kwang Central reeks of decay. But the fetidness of the "Bangkok Hilton", as it is known by inmates, is more indicative of the soul of the place than the damp edifices that contain the men. Built in the 1930s to hold 3500, the maximum security prison in Thailand's biggest city now houses about 8000 inmates, who have been sentenced to more than 25 years each, as well as hundreds awaiting the outcome of their pending appeals, or execution. Leg irons provide a means of status identification: new inmates wear theirs for the first three months, whereas those on death row have their shackles permanently welded on. Fates are determined by will or whim -- a royal birthday here, a public holiday there. The stroke of a monarch's pen determines who shall live, die or be released. And in the interim both the panacea for and consequence of not knowing is insanity: the inmate's survival guide. At the time of his arrest for heroin trafficking, South African Alexander (Shani) Krebs was 34 years old. Initially condemned to death, his sentence was commuted to 100 then 40 years. He has not spent a nano-second in a democratic South Africa, having been arrested a day before the elections in 1994. Over the years he earned the tragic reputation of being the longest-serving farang, or foreigner, in Bang Kwang. But on December 5 Thailand's monarch, King Bhumibol Adulyadej, benevolently issued an amnesty of sorts, courtesy of his birthday, to all farangs convicted of drug offences. In Thailand the seventh cycle, or 84th birthday, is a significant milestone for the monarchy and special celebrations are organised for the entire year. For the foreign inmates it means that one-sixth of their sentences has been reduced. For prisoners incarcerated since 1994, like Krebs, it signals an early release. Although most of the 11 convicted South African drug mules in Thailand have been incarcerated for more than 15 years, it is unclear who else will be released with Krebs. And South Africa's department of international relations and co-operation is not providing answers. What is certain, according to his family, is that Krebs will be released on April 22 -- eerily, almost 18 years to the day of his arrest. On Facebook, where a 751-strong support group was established in 2008, Krebs's friends have been relentlessly posting messages of support and daily marking the countdown. "Shani, only 56 days to go ... every day gets brighter. x," writes Sue. "Support our friend in the last steps to victory," says Erwin. There are psychedelic artworks and photo-shopped collages of Krebs on an aeroplane, Krebs giving the thumbs-up, Krebs reunited with his family in Johannesburg. "We wanted Shani to see how much he has been missed and how his loved ones are literally counting the days till he returns," said his sister, Joan Sacks. Since 1994 she has campaigned tirelessly for his release and kept him updated through letters and the occasional five-minute phone calls permitted by the Bang Kwang authorities. Sacks has also set up a website through which prints of his paintings -- Krebs became an accomplished artist during his incarceration -- can be bought. Arrested in Thailand Meeting him in 2009, through a double layer of bars, wire and glass, was akin to staring at the portrait of Dorian Gray. His curly hair had remained youthfully long, his body ripped and his face -- from a distance, at least -- seemed protected from the ravages of age that cleave creases, folds and furrows into the rest of us. He was 49 years old. Krebs wore a crisp white T-shirt and immaculately pressed blue trousers. He had been up most of the night, he said, copiously preparing notes for our first interview. He was charming and cheerful. He refused to divulge details of his incarceration -- the agonising months in solitary confinement, the daily drudge of prison life, the creeping despair that all he might ever do in his life was time. He made no mention of the sweat-soaked bodies crammed into cells measuring six metres by four metres, forced to sleep spoon-like, or the pungency of the open sewerage system, or the cesspool of disease that is Bang Kwang.

INDONESIAN authorities claim an Australian man arrested this week allegedly carrying 1.1kg of hashish inside his body was couriering for an international drug network.

2012-03-03T03:45:00.001Z

INDONESIAN authorities claim an Australian man arrested this week allegedly carrying 1.1kg of hashish inside his body was couriering for an international drug network. Because the amount exceeds 1kg, Edward Norman Myatt, 54, could face the death penalty if convicted of importing the drug, said I Made Wijaya, chief of Customs at Bali's Ngurah Rai international airport. "We believe he is a courier," Mr Wijaya yesterday told a press conference at which the Ballarat-born suspect was exhibited along with the drugs. "He is covering up information on the network in Indonesia." Speaking later in Denpasar, Gories Mere, chief of the national counter-narcotics agency BNN, said international drug syndicates were supplying illegal drugs into Bali. The trade had been in methamphetamines, Mr Gories said, but now the type of drugs being trafficked was changing. Mr Myatt was taken into custody at the airport on Monday afternoon after arriving from New Delhi via Bangkok. Mr Myatt was under surveillance by 40 officers when the Thai Airways flight landed because his movements had already attracted attention, Mr Wijaya said. Customs officers searched his baggage and clothing at the airport without finding any evidence of drugs, but remained suspicious. Mr Myatt was taken from the airport for a CT scan at a Kuta medical centre, but momentarily escaped the car when stopped in traffic and dived into a swamp near the roadway, Mr Wijaya said. The suspect was quickly caught and the scan later showed "suspicious objects" in his stomach. Mr Wijaya said 71 capsules containing hashish and one with crystal methamphetamines were recovered from Myatt's body over the following four days. The total weight, including packaging, was 1.11kg. The estimated street value of the hashish was Rp661.8 million (about $67,750). Under Section 113 of the Narcotics Law, Mr Wijaya said, "the suspect faces maximum penalty of death" or a prison term between five and 20 years. Mr Myatt, who was carrying Australian and British passports, had an April 4 return ticket to New Delhi. He had visited Bali five times previously. A Customs source said later that Mr Myatt was thought to have been working in Britain recently, but he had changed details of his story several times during questioning. Eleven of the 12 Australians now imprisoned at Bali's Kerobokan jail are serving lengthy terms for drug trafficking. They include Gold Coast woman Schapelle Corby and the Bali Nine heroin smuggling convicts. Two of the Bali Nine, Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran, have been sentenced to death and their last resort is an appeal for presidential clemency to Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono. Sydney man Michael Sacatides was arrested at Ngurah Rai on October 1, 2010, with 1.7kg of methamphetamines concealed in his luggage. Sacatides was last year sentenced to 18 years' jail.

Pattaya's foreign criminals feel the heat

2012-02-13T13:44:00.001Z

This is why the Provincial Region 2 has established the Transnational Crime Coordination Centre (TNCC) to deal directly with foreigners who come to Thailand to commit crimes. The existence of the centre has shed some light on how diverse the transnational gangs in Pattaya are and how their illegal businesses in this tourist centre have flourished. French nationals Nagim Hassainia, 33, and Samir Raihane, 41, who are suspects in a credit card fraud case, were arrested on Feb 2. The suspects were nabbed at a hotel in Pattaya after police found them withdrawing money from an ATM using forged credit cards containing information stolen from other countries. They sent 70% of the money back to their networks in France and took the rest of the money, the TNCC said. At least 10 members of the French gang are thought to be still on the loose. Some of them are responsible for stealing credit card information and ATM pins using a skimmer. Police seized 31 fake credit cards and 125,000 baht from the suspects. "This case could cause serious damage to Thailand's reputation," said Pol Lt Gen Panya Mamen, chief of the the Provincial Police Region 2. He said there were many foreign criminals on Pattaya's streets _ and one way to better deal with them was to improve the capacity of the TNCC, especially its ability to gather information and put it into the police database. "I have to admit there are a lot of foreign criminals who are tourists in disguise. Some are here to work with their Thai counterparts, while others act on their own," Pol Lt Gen Panya said. "Some are paedophiles. Others are criminals wanted by police in other countries yet come here pretending to be language teachers. All this makes Pattaya sound like a horrible city." Pol Lt Gen Panya hoped the Provincial Police Region 2 would achieve its goal of significantly decreasing the number of "unwanted visitors" in Pattaya within six months. The Provincial Police Region 2 is also stepping up efforts to strictly enforce the Immigration Act in which foreign suspects who are found to have criminal records or believed to be involved in a crime will have their visa nullified immediately and be extradited. These suspects will also be blacklisted by Thai immigration authorities. "They normally move around from Pattaya to Phuket, Koh Samui, Chiang Mai and then return to Pattaya again. If we can pool information, it will become easier to track them," Pol Lt Gen Panya said. Different gangs committed different crimes, ranging from theft to murder, he said. Pol Lt Gen Panya said some French gangs were known to be involved with fake credit cards and ATM cards. He said some Colombian gangs were involved with theft, whereas some Taiwanese gangs were linked to call centre scams. Pol Lt Col Chitdecha Songhong and Pol Capt Prajakpong Suriya of the TNNC, who arrested members of a French gang, agreed that inter-agency cooperation was crucial to uprooting a transnational gang. Pol Capt Prajakpong said it was difficult to locate foreign suspects even if police had pictures of them because they were frequently on the move and it was not easy to find information about them. "Pattaya is a popular criminal base because it's a hub of tourists and expatriates and the city has a lot of diamond and gold shops," he said. "The city also has many unregistered or illegal residential services which allow those criminals to stay here and hide away from immigration authorities." The TNNC is working with embassy officials in Pattaya and local banks to keep an eye on foreigners who come to the city to commit crimes.