Crime
Thailand’s Soi Dogs Being Rescued from Abroad
PHUKET – Rachel Barton from the UK has traveled to Thailand to help rescue three dogs which were due to be slaughtered as part of the county’s meat trade.
Rachel Barton is a volunteer for the Soi Dog charity, which aims to provide veterinary care and new homes for abused dogs in Asia.
This week she completed her second trip to Thailand to accompany three dogs back to the UK so they can be given to new owners who chose to help them after seeing them on the Soi Dog website.
Mrs Barton said: “We’re working with the Thai authorities to try to end this trade.
“Dogs are being stolen from gardens and are then kept in small wire cages in the jungle before being taken over to Vietnam.
“They are taken to areas of the country where dog is eaten and are made to suffer before they die as it’s believed it makes the meat more tasty.”
Soi Dog was founded in 2003 by Margot Homburg Park and John and Gill Dalley and has helped provide veterinary care, in the form of neutering, to more than 50,000 dogs and cats since it was set up.
Mrs Barton, who owns two dogs, said she became involved with the charity after becoming aware of animal welfare issues.
She said: “I was blown away by the charity and just could not believe the work that it was doing.
“It is so forward thinking and they are just trying to raise awareness of the dog meat trade.”
Mrs Barton, who is now part of the management team of Soi Dog, said she was hoping to go to Thailand again to pick up some more dogs to be re-homed.
Lucky the dog is getting ready to fly to Toronto Canada from Thailand, and it’s going to cost $1,000.
Lucky was rescued by Doggie Heaven in Thailand, and was apparently destined for the dog meat market. However, money is being raised to get him to a home in CanadaDog lovers contributed to a Facebook fundraising campaign for the dog which two months ago was stuffed in a chicken crate on a transport truck, destined for the dog meat trade.
Canadian Agnes Poleszczuk, who is adopting Lucky, is one of many dog lovers in Canada, the U.S., the U.K. and other countries who are choosing to adopt dogs from abroad over local pooches in need of a home.
Poleszczuk came across Lucky when she was browsing the website of the Soi Dog Foundation, which is dedicated to helping “homeless, neglected and abused dogs and cats of Thailand.”
She had been making monthly donations, but after reading about the dog meat trade was moved to bring a Thai dog to join her, her husband and their two teenage children.
The family adopted a chocolate lab three years ago from a rescue centre in Kentucky, which she said is an area with a huge stray population.
While Poleszczuk acknowledges local adoption is “a wonderful thing to do,” she said dogs like Lucky are needy because they’re less likely to be adopted and their lives are at risk, pointing to the “very real threat that they face every day of being smuggled across the border and being skinned alive or boiled alive or beaten.”
“You respond because there is a great need,” she said, comparing the situation to child victims in war zones. “I don’t think it really matters so much whether the person or the animal in need is close to your home or on the other side of the world. I think you help where the help is needed the most.”
“We’re all for it. A life is a life.”
Lucky is being cared for by New Zealander Sherin Peace, who runs Doggie Heaven rescue centre in Phuket, Thailand, and has found “forever homes” in the U.S. and U.K. for 21 dogs since the centre launched six months ago.
Rescuing dogs from abroad seems to be popular, said Peace. “I guess it’s maybe quite a neat talking point when you’re at the dog park. You saved this dog from being dished up for dinner. That’s so much nicer than going down to the pet shop than spending $1,000 for a pedigree poodle.”
Peace has heard about stolen dogs travelling cramped in crates toward neighbouring countries. A phone call alerted her to a truck of 13 dogs — including Lucky — that had been intercepted in Nakhon Phanom province in northeast Thailand, bordering Laos. They are now in a shelter in Soi Dog’s care.
“There’s about 4,000 dogs jammed in this one shelter fighting for their lives,” said Peace, who made the trip with her 10-year-old daughter about two months ago.
“Lucky came up and put his head on my daughter’s shoulder,” said Peace, adding the dog was infested with parasites and badly in need of a haircut. “He was just like one big dreadlock.”
They cleaned him up and posted videos, photos and stories online, which is where Poleszczuk first saw his picture about a month ago.
Now Poleszczuk’s Facebook campaign has raised more than $700 of the $1,000 needed to fly him to Canada as cargo. She expects to have Lucky running into her arms at Pearson airport by the end of September.
To find out more about Soi Dog visit www.soidog.org

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.
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.
Related News:
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
Thailand’s Cyber Crime Police Raid Top Cops Home Over Gambling Websites
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