Crime
Niger National Kimba 35 Yaou Detained by Immigration Over Stolen Visa Stamps
SONGKLA – Special investigators from the Foreign Ministry and the police are questioning members of the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur over the disappearance of 300 visa labels.
Information Department deputy chief Jakkrit Sriwali Thursday described the missing labels as an ‘‘irregularity’’ caused by Malaysian staff employed at the embassy.
Mr Jakkrit said tough legal action would be taken against those responsible, including Thai nationals.
The 300 visa slips were found missing from the embassy after border police officers arrested a Nigerian national who was on the immigration watch list.
The arrest of Sunday Edwin Naemeka, 35, which exposed the scandal, took place at Songkhla Immigration Office in Sadao district on the Thai-Malaysian border on Wednesday morning.
Nigerian tourist Nnamdi Igbolekwe, 23, after tourist police arrested him yesterday on Soi Nana.Mr Jakkrit said officials had known about the disappearance of the slips for some time, but the case had not been made public because the Foreign Ministry did not want those holding the illegally obtained visas to know they were being hunted.
Two committees have been set up to investigate the incident, one by the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur and the other by the Foreign Ministry.
The ministry’s committee went to Kuala Lumpur last month to conduct its probe, Mr Jakkrit said, adding that they found that those responsible for the crime had tried to cover their tracks.
The Thai suspects involved are believed to be outsiders without links to immigration authorities, he added.
There are five Malaysian employees in the consular section of the embassy.
Deputy Prime Minister Pracha Promnok Thursday confirmed the loss of the visa labels. He said a Cameroonian and a Guinean were caught using two lost visa labels trying to enter Thailand from Laos through Mukdahan province on July 20 and 21 respectively.
Thai authorities knew something was amiss because the foreigners had not entered Malaysia but their stamps were marked by the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
A number of other foreigners were arrested at Suvarnabhumi airport trying to use the lost visa labels. They were charged with using fake documents to enter the country and detained at the Immigration Bureau in Bangkok.
Pol Gen Pracha said the authorities do not know if the visa scam is linked to terrorism.
The Foreign Ministry has nullified the lost visa labels, he said, and added that he hopes the ministry will find the culprits. It will be important to find out why the scam took place at the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur, he said.
Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Pharnu Kerdlarpphon said 103 foreigners used the visas to enter the country, and 59 of them have since left Thailand.
Immigration police in Songkhla’s Sadao district Thursday apprehended Kimba Yaou, a 35-year-old citizen of Niger, with a lost visa slip.
The Nigerois said he was a football player and he had paid US$1,000 (about 30,000 baht) to a broker in Kuala Lumpur to get a visa for him. He wanted to enter Thailand to visit his pregnant Thai wife.
Mean while, Police in Bangkok and Nong Khai yesterday arrested three more suspects who allegedly used the stolen visa labels to enter Thailand.
Pol Col Archayon Kraithong, deputy commander of the Tourist Police Division, said police arrested a Nigerian tourist identified as Nnamdi Igbolekwe, 23, with stolen visa label no. A 5801948 at Soi Nana.
Police say Mr Igbolekwe told them he never entered Malaysia, but instead hired a Nigerian agent to forge a travel document for 120,000 baht in May and entered Thailand last month.
Pol Col Archayon said 259 foreigners have entered the country using the stolen visa labels, and 55 of those remain in Thailand. Police are still searching for the remaining 43 foreigners, whose names have been sent to security units nationwide. Police have said they will prioritise capturing those involved in drugs and transnational crime.
Nong Khai police on Friday arrested a Burundian businessman, Barut Wanayo, 42, and a Ghanaian football player, Philemon Sottie, 23, both caught with the stolen visa labels.
Mr Wanayo denied the accusation, saying that he was a garment exporter from Bangkok to Africa and has lived in Thailand for four years with legal documentation.
He said that in November, however, he accepted an Indian agent’s offer to obtain a visa for him for 10,000 baht.
He said he obtained the visa at the Thai embassy in Vientiane, Laos before going back to Thailand via the Nong Khai border checkpoint.
Mr Sottie said he has lived in Thailand for more than two years to play football for the Surin FC team, and that he received a legal visa for residing in the country from the Thai consulate-general in Laos’ Savannakhet province.
Pol Lt Col Pariwat Satjaphan, an inspector for the Nong Khai immigration police, said that Mr Wanayo’s visa belonged to the group of lost visa labels from the Thai embassy in Kuala Lumpur.
He added that Mr Sottie’s visa was unusual, because it did not include the capital ‘A’ in front of the visa number and the signature of the Thai consulate-general.
Immigration police are looking for a Thai woman identified only as Mama as she is suspecting of selling a lost visa label to the Cameroonian. Detectives said the woman was a major visa broker in Thailand.
Army commander Prayuth Chan-ocha said that the loss of the visa labels should not pose any security problems in Thailand.
Bangkok Post
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.
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/
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.
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