Dogmatix

Things will not go well for him but a death sentence is not on the cards. A category 1 drug which could get death but quantity seems small and not enough to be classified as dealing and get a death sentence. There are several firearms offences but maxium of 10 years for that and likely for a lot less for a first offence and to serve concurrently. But probably the drugs and firearms sentences will be ordered served consecutively though, as they are unrelated crimes. Sweden can take him back after he has served a third, I think.

Even if this is a BB gun incapable of firing the ammo, having the real bullets will mean that he will get the same penalties for all the firearms offences he is charged with as for a real gun. Having the meth won't help him much either. He could be facing several years in prison in Thailand before repatriation to Sweden under the prisioner exchange treaty. The Swedes will then release him after a token couply of months in a Swedish prison. The only country that abides strictly by their prisoner exchange treaty and waits for the Thai government to order the release of exchanged prisoners is the UK. That means that prisioners exchanged on lengthy drugs sentences have to serve time in the UK with UK prisoners serving similar sentences, e.g. completely deranged murderers on life sentences who can never be released. All the other Western countries release the prisoners when they have served the same sentence they would got in that country for the same offences, which is usually immediately. Thailand have never raised any official objection to this practice. The UK leaves them to finish their Thai sentences or get a Thai Royal pardon. Many British prisoners have said they would have been better off left in the Thai prison.

The looks fake, home made or maybe a conversion from an air pistol or something. I don't think Colt Defenders have ever been made in anything but .45 and 9mm calibers. The Colt Mustang is a .380 version, as was the Colt Pony. The .380 cartridges are genuine local production though. The barrel looks like it is a mild steel tube with a weird brass knurling on the end, perhaps to prevent the slide from shooting off the gun, if there are no internals to prevent this. Doesn't seem to have a bushing. The magazine looks as if it is home made from sheet metal and is clearly too long for the grips, so it would stick out, presumably to hold more rounds. Normally a small .380 pistol is intended for concealment and its magazines will only hold 5 or 7 rounds. Perhaps the "Made in Turkey" on the slide should have been a give away to the cops. In fact it looks the Turkish BB gun or starter's pistol on sale here. https://biggunbbshop.com/th/articles/180707-kuzey-911-colt-defender-9mm.p.a.k. Similar Colts available on Lazada https://www.lazada.co.th/products/kuzey-m1911-colts-100-5-i2674594064.html?spm=a2o4m.store_product.list.1.177f42d7RdErrF I expect the Swedish guy was ripped off and sold this thing which may or may not have been modified to take the .380 cartriges. Perhaps the scamster found that real .380 bullets would actually fit in the magazine of a starter's type pistol. The police said he had a loaded gun. It would interesting to know what would happen, if it was fired.

This is right next to a report of a Swedish man arrested with a gun and ice on Pattaya beach.

China. They can just report them as "foreign" triads in future. Ha ha.

After reading about unlicensed sellers getting busted for selling from mobile stalls on Thonglor and Sukhumvit Soi 11, I was surprised to see 4 or 5 stalls openly selling buds on Soi Cowbay the other night. Two of them were busy selling buds and ready rolled joints to tourists one or two metres away from policemen who took zero interest. Presumably they have temporary informal licenses from Thonglor police or maybe profit sharing deals. The apparently licensed dispensary on the corner of Soi 23 with Cowboy that was packed with smokers before the edict banning smoking lounges has removed the ash trays and bar stools and had no customers. One of the former bars at the Asoke end has been converted to a cannabis shop and had customers rolling joints inside and smoking them outside in front of it. In fact many of the bars had customers smoking joints out front. This aspect may actually be legal, since cannabis smoking outside is now controlled under the Public Health Act in the same way as tobacco. That means it is only an offence, if it causes a nuisance to others and someone needs to complain. Complaints about smoking tobacco or cannabis in an outside smoking zone in front of a bar in Soi Cowboy are extremely unlikely.

Vis a vis the Israeli caught with two full magazines of 5.56 ammo, he has the advantage that he was not caught with guns and ammo classified as war weapons in Thai law. On the other hand the Israeli could argue he had brought the mags with him by mistake and that he had lawful possession of them in Israel, whereas this guy admitted he had purchased them and intentionally tried to bring them on a flight. The Israeli got 18 months. I guess this guy will more than double that.

The cartridges on the left seem to be this type of .38 special revolver ammo.

Some pics from Thai website cops-magazine. Looks like a disassembled Glock 26 or similar or maybe a copy. Pretty obvious his collection would be picked up by X-rays. If he had some reason for wanting to acquire this little lot and transport it to Bkk, the question comes to mind why not travel by surface? The Thai police press release refers to “gun equivalent” because that is wording taken from the 1947 Firearms Act that equates gun parts, such as barrels, slides and frames, as gun equivalents with the same penalties for illegal possession as a completely built up gun. This may indicate that police intended to charge him with multiple counts of firearms possession - one for each disassembled part with 10 years max for each gun equivalent. He may have done better to have packed it completely assembled. The cartridges in the batches on the right look like 9mm that would fit the gun but the batches in the left are longer and look like .38 special for a revolver. (One of the revolver rounds oddly is a different style from the rest - black coated round nosed bullet in steel case, while the other revolver rounds are flat topped copper FMJ in regular brass cases.) He said he needed the gun and ammo for self protection but didn’t explain why he thought he needed the revolver cartridges. I wonder if he planned to pick up a revolver later. Seems to imply intent to commit a further crime - perhaps selling arms and ammunition. Perhaps the seller happened to have the .38 rounds he wanted to get off and the Ozzie bought them without looking in the bag. No doubt the investigators will be very curious about the mismatch of ammo. No doubt the seller will turn out to be that mysterious Lek who returned to an unknown province immediately after the deal.

I am told that well connected Thai investors are involved in the trade in Laos and that they are not only growing brick weed there but high grade strains. I am unable to verify this but it stands to reason that the investors are Thai and that, if they can grow brick weed there, they can grow other strains too. Even though it is still illegal in Laos, Thais may like the anonymity of having large plantations there and land rental and production cost is obviously less than in Thailand.

I got the same reaction as Neeranam. As a kid someone put temptation in my way and I thought it was really cool for a few years. But it led to a number of personal problems including neglect of studies and some narrow misses with fuzz. Some that I knew were not so lucky and became guests of HMQ for 6 months for what today would be considered trivial confiscation and warning offences. I gave up for a bit to get my studies back on track and get into uni and when I tried it again I got bad paranoia most times with the fear that it would take me back down into the same old black hole from which I might not be so lucky to escape a second time. By the time I got to uni I was someone who just accepted an occasional puff passed round at a party but never sourced it myself and avoided getting involved with the heavy stoner crowd. As an adult I hardly indulged at all and never bought any for years and years and certainly never in Thailand, given the stringent penalties. I went to Amsterdam many years ago and wanted to try, since I had never had a legal smoke. By then there were already some wicked strains of skunk much stronger than anything that came in when we were kids. I had one big grass joint in a coffee shop that led to a somewhat paranoid experience because it was just too much for me. I ended up unable to speak or eat or remember where my hotel was. I wandered around for a couple of hours not enjoying at all and nearly being run over by tourists on bicycles several times until it started to wear off and I could navigate back to my hotel. Since legalisation in Thailand I have had tried a few times but always careful not to have too much of the new skunk strains. I haven't had any paranoia. My conclusion is that paranoia can be caused by too things: your personal circumstances and demons and overdoing it which is easy to do with modern strains or by ingesting it. Probably alcohol would also cause similar paranoia if it didn't have a depressant action. A couple of beers without overdoing it will usually take the edge off the paranoia caused by weed. Weed is definitely dangerous for kids. Their brains are not fully developed and it can give them a fake alternative reality that encourages them to take the easy way out and destroy their chances in life, if they get too much too young. It can also lead to paranoia from a small minority may never return. One guy I knew at uni, who had been a brilliant student, got stranger and stranger in the second year and then disappeared. Some time later I found out he had developed psychosis and ended up being institutionalised with no expectation of ever being released. Admittedly he had moved on to acid and maybe other substances and possibly had a predisposition to psychosis but there was no doubt that cannabis played a role in the destruction of a young life.

In others threads it is said that for driving license renewal they will no longer accept the yellow tabien baan and pink ID card as proof of address, even though tabien baan is accepted from Thai citizens. They want a certificate of residence provided by Immigration or an embassy. It is great to see Thai government departments being consistent in their approach.

To migrate your account to Paypal Thailand you need to do ID verification and Paypal decided to outsource that to NDID (National Digital Identification Co Ltd), a private Thai company that only provides ID verification for Thai citizens. Therefore Paypal made the decision to axe foreign accounts in Thailand through its choice of ID verification contractor. Seems odd because most Thai consumers and vendors have no need of Paypal. They transfer funds online and send the slip with LINE saving card and other other payment service fees. I guess it was mainly foreigners and a small number of Thais who can read English and have enough money to buy stuff from overseas that used Paypal.

If they ever get the subs, let's hope they don't use them and just leave them in the dock for kids to play in on Children's Day like the aircraft carrier. Couldn't bear another drama like the boys in the cave.

He was angry but their neighbor, the owner, was a good man who would take care of the funeral cost. Strange definition of a good man. Hopefully he will also take care of funeral costs for the three pit bulls.

Lucky for the unfortunate victim that he didn't survive after having his genitals ripped apart by the beasts.

Triads started coming in late 19th century. By the 1920s there were large rival triad gangs involved in a range of crime including kidnapping. Their descendants are now gangster politicians who are starting to wake up to the threat to their turf from slick new arrivals.

There used to be a big problem with chinese triad gangs in the early part of the 20th century including kidnappings and other crimess. The descandants of the triads eventually became Thai poliiticians. Maybe they will also assimilate the current wave of Chinese triads in the local criminal/political structure. They seem a good fit.

What happened to the Swiss guy? I haven’t seen any follow up reports. Last I saw he was allowed bail. The Swiss guy apparently had a string defence. Self defence and defence of wife (he didn’t know the intruder was his wife’s lover) against an armed intruder who threatened him with a revolver in his home. He fought three intruder, managed to disarm him and continued to fight until the threat was neutralized which unfortunately resulted in the intruder’s death. This would be accepted I’m most rule of law jurisdictions. In the case in hand there is no self defense argument presented and it doesn’t seem the intruder was armed or presented a threat to life and limb. It seems the property owner used more force than was needed to eject the thief from his property. The intruder sustained serious injuries for which the property should be held responsible in criminal and civil law. He should not be held responsible for the death, if expect medical opinion holds that that would not have occurred, if the deceased had stayed on for medical treatment.

The cops could also access that database on their phones. These BMW smart cars are obviously another way to waste taxpayers' money with kickbacks to suppliers of unnecessary, overpriced eqipment.

So presumably Danes have figured out their currency is now worthless abroad and they change to euros or USD before travelling. A terrific advantage of Denmark's currency independence wrangled from the EU.

What's left of Move Forward will be wiped out in the next election due to the 100 divisor for party list seats. They got most of their seats from the party list under the old system. The final nail in the coffin of the party that dared to be popular with youth and challenge the dinosaurs. The irony is of course that Pheua Thai will do best from the new electoral system.

True. The Nepalese looks more like a chocolate cake in comparison.

They try to make it sound like he is being punished by being sacked with full pension after he had already resigned. He got a big pay off and doesn't care. So did the people above him responsible for this fiasco. Thailand corruption - the fish has rotted from the head down.

Just got a new Por. 3 permit to buy a .308 custom rifle for long distance competition shooting out to 1,000 yards. No psychiatric test or anything else new, as these changes are only being discussed. Nothing has changed so far. Permits are more or less "shall issue" in Bangkok, if you have all the qualifications, but all the provinces are different and outside Bkk you have to apply to your district office which is usually more difficult, whereas Bkk has a central licensing office and district offices are not involved. Provincial governors are permitted to set different standards for issuing gun permits, depending on how they view the situation in their province, but can only make them stricter, not more lenient than in the current 1947 Firearms Act. Many provinces, e.g. Phuket have a blanket ban on permits for foreigners but that is not the case in Bkk which just follows the national law as in the Firearms Act which has hardly been updated since 1947. A recent attempt to amend it under the coup government failed. One of the proposed amendments was a proposed ban on new registrations to foreigners, despite no record of guns registered to foreigners ever having been used in a crime.