Israeli arrested in Chiang Mai over untaxed cigarettes

51 minutes ago, riverhigh said:

Another dumb, low-IQ foreigner trying to make a few baht on the side. Most probably started small and then got greedy.

I seriously doubt the Israeli bought them to sell them.

3 minutes ago, connda said:

I have no doubt that a cigarette smoker can consider 100 packs to be for personal consumption. I use to buy cigarettes from our local Indian Reservation by the cartons. Buying 5 cartons and putting them in the freezer was pretty normal. That's 50 packs. I picked that up from my parents 🙏🏾who both were killed by their addiction.

Makes sens to me but I reckon from a legal POV there is a number that backs up a charge of buying to sell.

That doesn't mean that the number is always or even usually true in any given case, but they kind of do need to have a quantifiable limit.

Not sure how the charge of intention to sell impacts the severity of such cases in Thailand.

Obviously if this was about a few packs we wouldn't know about it,

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by Jingthing

He might have been a chain smoker.

I wonder who the grass was that reported him. Especially over just 200 packets of cigarettes.

Not exactly the crime of the century.

Edited 8 hours ago8 hr by phetphet

4 hours ago, SABloke said:

I don't understand what happened here: If he ordered the cigarettes from a local supplier, then that supplier should have paid taxed on the import and if they didn't and are selling "untaxed" goods, then they should be fined, not the customer. If he ordered the cigarettes from overseas, then customs should have billed him for the tax. How does one order something "untaxed"?

Years ago we were in the big market next to Aranyaprathet and I bought about 10 cartons of Marlie Reds from a bitchy unfriendly old lady and went on our way. They were for sale everywhere. We never got more than 1/2 a kilometer down the road in my pick up and a quazi Swat Team flagged us down. They knew exactly where to look and found them.Took us to the cop shop and made a big fuss and placed them on a table for a photo op...They even fingerprinted my wife. Cost me almost 40k baht to get away. A fooking set up right from the start. This man was set up guaranteed!

For decades, I smoked between two and three packs a day. Quitting smoking for good involved two months of withdrawal suffering, after which the need to smoke disappeared completely. That ordeal happened twenty years ago, and I haven't smoked since.

I still have an addiction that I can't control: Thai girls! It's much more expensive than smoking, but that's how it is.

53 minutes ago, connda said:

Ultimately they killed both my parents. Both my sister and I became cigarette addicts. I quit cold turkey in my mid-20s. It was one of the most difficult things that I've done in my life. Cigarettes are vile, but governments simply become co-dependents by taxing them.

Yeah, but .......

Our living room was heated by a smelly paraffin heater

Our living room was heated by an open coal fire

The coal fired electric light works was close

The soap factory was at smelling distance, wind direction dependent and the wind whistled through the poorly fitted windows and doors.

Everyone seems to forget how the 50s and 60s actually worked. Smoking cigarettes was a part of almost everyone's life.

Apologies for drifting off topic!

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by BritManToo

54 minutes ago, connda said:

If governments gave a da*m about the health of cigarette smokers, then they would ban cigarettes and make them the highly addictive and toxic products that they are. But instead - they grift by taxing the addicts.

Ban Cigarette!

While I definitely agree with you in principle, there is a matter of "freedom of choice". People will argue its my right to smoke and that "Big Brother" should stay out of my personal business. Politicians need their votes. What they forget is that there is the problem of second-hand smoke in confined areas. Many will light up in bars and coffee shops without a second thought. Many will demand that hospitals and doctors cure them of their smoking related health issues at the taxpayers expense. A few will even blame "big brother" for letting them smoke in the first place

Edited 7 hours ago7 hr by riverhigh

1 hour ago, connda said:

I seriously doubt the Israeli bought them to sell them.

200 packs in one shipment. 20 cigarettes per packet equates to 4,000 cigarettes, that's some serious smoking. True, he did say shipment was for his personal use. I just have have my doubts that he was so "unlucky" to be caught on his first shipment, I think he was being monitored. Just my speculation.

6 hours ago, BritManToo said:

Two packs is nothing, my dad used to go through 4 packs a day, and anothor 2 packs for my mom.

That is a staggering amount of money even at the prices back then.

Edited 6 hours ago6 hr by BusyB

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4 hours ago, connda said:

I have no doubt that a cigarette smoker can consider 100 packs to be for personal consumption. I use to buy cigarettes from our local Indian Reservation by the cartons. Buying 5 cartons and putting them in the freezer was pretty normal. That's 50 packs. I picked that up from my parents 🙏🏾who both were killed by their addiction.

Cigarettes in the freezer. 😱. WTF 🙈

Where did he buy the cigarettes from?

6 hours ago, phetphet said:

I wonder who the grass was that reported him. Especially over just 200 packets of cigarettes.

Not exactly the crime of the century.

There's always the possibility of a setup gone wrong (refused to pay to make it go away), but more likely he just pissed off some woman.