Dozens of Thais arrested in Myanmar, police check for wanted criminals

By Natthawat Laping

The Nation

 

 

Myanmar authorities conducted raids at entertainment venues, hotels, resorts and residential communities in the Lahu tribe-influenced area of Nayao, near the Thai-Myannar border opposite Chiang Rai’s Mae Fah Luang district on Sunday evening- and rounded up 81 Thai nationals who had illegally entered the country.

 

Chiang Rai Immigration superintendent Pol Colonel Ekkorn Busababodin said on Monday that the raids by police and officials from Myanmar’s Central Committee for Drug Abuse Control (CCDAC) in the town of Mong Hsat rounded up 48 Thai men and 33 Thai women who lacked proper immigration documents.

 

As the 81 are currently being detained for further questioning at Mong Hsat City Hall officials are trying to determine if any are wanted criminals.

 

They are especially keen to ascertain whether the group contains Thai drug trafficker Pannawit Pathum, 30, who is better known by his Facebook name “Theppabut Solo”, or 5-6 gang members. 

 

Pannawit is thought to have fled to Myanmar after an arrest warrant was issued for him for allegedly masterminding the murder of a 17-year-old Khon Kaen youth on January 14 over an apparently unpaid drug debt.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/breakingnews/30363505

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-02-04

Things must be getting bad in Thailand if Thais are going to Myanmar to tout for work !!!

Well done Myanmar - play the Thais at their game!!

Looks like they may have their own BJ or Burma Joke to his friends ????

Wonder if there will be any trumped up charges on the side of the border as well. Quick and easy to solve open crimes with people who really can't defend themselves.

Mong Hsat. That's a town you can only reach from the Thai side through local border crossings that don't officially allow even Thais to go far from the border. However, since Thais look like local Shan people if there are any checkpoints on the way they probably don't check their documents and assume they are locals.

 

I know there are Thais living and working in Myanmar, just didn't think there would be 81 Thais in one given place, especially not as possible illegal workers. I've always been puzzled by the presence of relatively large numbers of Thais in some parts of Myanmar, but the almost complete lack in other parts (even though they are also near the border). For example, for some reason, Thais don't visit Myawaddy, with the exception of truck drivers. Why is that? It's a perfectly legal border crossing point and in fact, the busiest of all the country's land border checkpoints. However, as a regular visitor to Myawaddy I have never seen more than 2-3 Thai cars driving inside the city at one time and the only place one does see tons of Thais is at the casinos along the river which are reached by boat from the Thai side. One also sees Thais (as tourists) at the Golden Rock and in Yangon and Mandalay, as well as Dawei and Myeik. Tachilek also for the market, but rarely beyond that.