Crime

Honorary Consul of Australia Larry Cunningham Warns People to Avoid Thai Beach Parties

A tourist sleeps on the beach during sunrise in Koh Phangan, Thailand at the monthly ‘Full Moon’ party where thousands of foreigners and Thai citizens come to have an all-night beach party.

KHO PHANGAN – Young travelers partying on beaches in southern Thailand are drinking a potentially deadly drug cocktail made from a local leaf trafficked by criminals who prey on them when they are under its influence, Australia’s official representative in the area warns.

The drug, kratom, is often mixed with the insect repellent DEET as well as cough medicine, cola and ice, leaving users in a stupefied and vulnerable state, says Larry Cunningham, Australia’s honorary consul based in Phuket.

The victims of rapes, assaults and thefts committed at Thailand’s beach rave parties usually failed to report the crim

Honorary Consul Larry Cunningham warns people to avoid Thai beach parties. Jody Houton/The Phuket News

es to police, he said, leaving the extent of the problem largely unknown.

“What do you do if you are out of it from taking this stuff and you are dragged away in the night and raped by a pack of Thai guys?”

Kratom is a tree in the coffee family that grows in abundance in the jungles of south-east Asia.

Its opiate-like effect and low cost has led to rampant trafficking in tourist areas.

Twenty leaves is enough to create a kratom cocktail for several people and costs the equivalent of $3.

The drug has been banned in Thailand since 1943 but Justice Minister Chaikasem Nitisiri has proposed legalising it, saying its use may detract from people using drugs like methamphetamine and crystal-meth.

“Kratom was used as a traditional medicine in the past,” he told Thai journalists last week.

In an interview on the eve of his retirement after eight years in the job, Cunningham said parents would be shocked to know how Thai criminals target young tourists at parties like those on Koh Phangan, an island where each full moon up to 30,000 ravers cram into one kilometre of beach, sipping cocktails from buckets.

“They are some of the worst criminals in Thailand … rapists, murderers and thieves and some are corrupt police,” he said.

Cunningham said one young distressed Australian woman turned up at the Australian embassy in Bangkok wearing only a T-shirt and bikini.

She had been pack raped and had all her valuables stolen during a party and someone had put her on a bus to Bangkok.

Cunningham criticised the portrayal of the parties by Fairfax Media travel writer Ben Groundwater as “glorious debauchery” and his strong advice was for people to stay away.

Ingredients for the “4×100” drug cocktail include cough syrup and kratom leaves, which are indigenous to Thailand

“These are dangerous, dangerous places… even groups of revellers are targeted by these criminals,” Cunningham said.

“Previously the buckets contained mixes like cheap Thai whiskey but now drinkers have no idea what is in there,” he said.

Dozens of revellers are usually ferried to mainland hospitals after each party on Koh Phangan, suffering a litany of ailments and injuries.

Last New Year’s Eve, 22 year-old British tourist Stephan Aston was shot dead as he danced with friends at a waterfront bar.

Ten foreigners have died in mysterious circumstances since 2009 at Thai holiday destinations, including Canadian sisters Noemi and Audrey Belanger, who were found dead in their hotel on the southern island of Phi Phi in 2011.

An autopsy report into the deaths has not been released but authorities say the likely cause was a deadly cocktail mix.

Cunningham, 64, has led criticism of jet ski, taxi, motorbike and other scams targeting tourists on Phuket, which prompted a crackdown by an elite police unit, the Department of Special Investigation.

But Cunningham said many of the tens of thousands of Australians and New Zealanders who visited Phuket each month came to Thailand thinking they could do here what they could not do at home, including breaking laws.

187kg of kratom leaves; 17 boxes of 175 cough-syrup bottles, 22 litres of leavening agent and 2,700 tablets of psychotropic substance category 4; two boxes containing 500 bullets; and one box of suspected bomb-making electronic parts, six communication radios, 13 cell phones, five barrels and 350 grams of potassium nitrate.

“They get plastered and walk around with their shirts off and jump on motorcycles drunk,” he said.

Cunningham said that about half of the average deaths in Phuket each year were avoidable, including deaths from traffic accidents and falling from high-storey hotels.

He said while the Department of Foreign Affairs website carried warnings for travellers, more ways should be found to publicise risks in places like Phuket.

“We have got to get the message across that people shouldn’t leave their brains behind when they come to Thailand.”

Cunningham said he will live forever with the “wailing” of relatives who have come to Phuket to take home the bodies of their loved ones.

“It’s just heartbreaking to see.”

Travellers should take out medical insurance and be aware of what the policy covered, he said, recounting the story of an Australian who suffered a fractured skull while riding a motorbike on Phuket.

As the hospital bills grew to $60,000, his insurance company in Australia refused to pay because he did not have a motorbike licence in Australia.

The man’s father, who was about to retire, had to take out a loan to pay the hospital.

“Many travellers don’t know these things … stories like these should be on the front page,” Mr Cunningham said.

Cunningham said that in retirement he planned to spend six months of the year in Sydney and six months in Phuket, where he owns the five-star Chava resort on Surin beach. Australia has advertised for a new honorary consul for Phuket.

– The Age

Crime

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.

Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.

According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.

Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.

His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.

During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.

The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.

She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.

Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.

The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.

The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.

Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.

He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.

Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Related Police News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Crime

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.

According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).

According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.

He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.

Police called to home invasion

Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.

When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.

They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.

While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.

Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.

The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.

Other Bangkok News:

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Crime

Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network

The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.

Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.

Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.

Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.

According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.

Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.

Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.

According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.

According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.

Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.

But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.

The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.