British crypto trader mixed up in drugs and guns arrested in Hua Hin

[Jonathan Fairfield]

 
A British man, who was arrested earlier this year following firearms offences in Koh Samui, has been arrested in Hua Hin.
 
The 33 year old man, who has previously been described as a wealthy cryptocurrency trader, allegedly went on a shooting spree while on board a speedboat in waters off Koh Samui.
 
Police said the man, who was reportedly high on drugs, began firing from the speedboat in the direction of the Four Seasons Hotel on Koh Samui, sparking panic among people sitting on the adjacent beach. 
 
He was later arrested with police finding a 9mm Beretta pistol, 31 bullets and a revolver with 49 bullets inside his hotel room.
 
It is not clear if he ever faced formal charges for the incident in Samui, which took place last February.
 
On Monday, Immigration announced the man had recently been arrested at Hua Na Market in Hua Hin, Thai news site Naewna reported. 
 
Thai media said that the man was involved with a registered charity organisation and cryptocurrency when he was arrested.
 
Thai media suggested he would be deported following his arrest in Hua Hin. 

 

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[smedly]

not exactly clear why he was arrested, maybe someone wants a Ferrari 

[Dogmatix]

Bretta pistols were all the rage 20 or 30 years ago when they were still used by US forces but now Thais are crazy about Glocks which are easier to shoot and just as reliable with a greater cool factor.  Also spare parts high capacity mags are readily available and Glocks are easy to tune up. There must a lot of unwanted Berettas floating around as well as old revolvers, of which he also had one.  Thais often don't realise they can easily inherit a gun from a deceased family member to register it in their own name and legally sell it, if they have no use for it. So they just tend to sell old guns of deceased family members into the black market, where they can fall into the hands of sleezy farang yobs and crims in Pattaya, Hua Hin & etc.

 

Cops can't hold anyone responsible for these guns as the registered owner is dead and the family will just say they never saw the gun in the deceased's possessions, so he must have lost it or sold it before he died.  Another route for distribution of genuine firearms is the Interior Ministry's civil service welfare scheme that imports huge quantities of guns to sell at discounted prices to civil servants, state enterprise employees and even local defense olunteers. This is a massive money spinner for corrupt ministry officials who control the import and distribution of the guns. Many civil servants sell their guns into the black market, file a police report of a lost or stolen gun and apply to buy another one.   

Edited September 28, 2021 by Dogmatix

[GBW]

'It is not clear if he ever faced formal charges for the incident in Samui, which took place last February'.

Says it all really, RIP RTP.............

[ukrules]

You get a full translation if you load the page using Chrome and click 'English'

 

Says something about after the prosecution was over he then went into hiding and later turned up in Hua Hin.

 

"With the behavior of Mr. Benjamin having a character that is a threat to society as a person who is forbidden from entering the Kingdom under The Immigration Act requires revocation of permission to stay in the Kingdom and push out of the Kingdom."

 

It appears he did a runner to avoid being deported. Strange that they let him out when they intended to deport him but TIT and he likely has a little less money now than he did at the time of his conviction ????

 

So they're kicking him out because he's a menace to society. Seems fair enough.

[Andrew65]

He will be very lucky just to be deported, rather than several years in the monkey- house! (If he was involved in drugs). 

[ronster]

Trader ? Didn’t look like he could tie his shoes from what I remember , so he’s either not a trader or very lucky .

How the hell he wasn’t deported or jailed after last time should be looked into as he was totally off his face on ice shooting towards the four seasons and they found a pile of drugs at his apartment and another gun from what I recall . ????

[Nojohndoe]

Aha ! Crypto-currency !  The funny money for dodgy deals? If only I used Twitter!  (dig dig)

[Jimbo2014]

5 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

The 33 year old man, who has previously been described as a wealthy cryptocurrency trader, allegedly went on a shooting spree while on board a speedboat in waters off Koh Samui.

As you do...????

[allanos]

He has opened himself up to numerous charges before he is kicked out of Thailand. Even waving a fistful of dollars, he will be lucky to escape a stint of incarceration.

[hotchilli]

6 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Police said the man, who was reportedly high on drugs, began firing from the speedboat in the direction of the Four Seasons Hotel on Koh Samui, sparking panic among people sitting on the adjacent beach.

Lowering the image of British expats... off to the pokey my son.

[shackleton]

Could have been worse by overstaying his visa 

What a farce firing off weapons drugs ect 

Must have paid some One off  to be let loose from his original charge 

[tonray]

3 hours ago, GBW said:

'It is not clear if he ever faced formal charges for the incident in Samui, which took place last February'.

Says it all really, RIP RTP.............

What is clear however, is that he had the means to make any charges disappear.

[Fairynuff]

4 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

greater cool factor

Nothing cool about guns.

[Dogmatix]

Now I have seen pics of his 9mm Beretta and ..357 magnum S&W revolver and both look pretty new and must have been bought on the black market at relatively high prices. Probably leaked from the civil service welfare scheme or stolen. The boatman was apparently arrested for possession of a Sig Sauer 9mm pistol. The guns look too good to be Thai copies.  So cops should be able to trace previous owner, if legally imported and registered in Thailand. There are Thai and farang serial numbers on them and difficult and the numer can often still be read with a high power microscope, even if filed off. But no mention of the origin of the guns and, as already mentioned, it looks as if he paid off the Samui cops to make the charges go away.  If not needed for evidence they would have been able to sell the guns back into the black market along with the dope too. A nice little earner for them.  In the video on the Daily Mail's website, both idiots meekly signed confessions, which makes it indefensible that both were allowed to go free after that.  But Thai police hierarchy would not be bothered about probable evidence of corruption being on foreign news outlets, if no charges pressed after confessions.  

 

Simpson looks like a bouncer, not a rocket scientist or a smart crypto trader. It is much more likely that he is a boiler room boy.  They often pass themselves off as crypto traders to explain their ill gotten gains from ripping off pensioners' life savings and may put it into crypto for money laundering purposes.  His driving license shown in the Mail video was issued in Surat, so he must have moved to Hua Hin after paying off the BiB in Samui.   Presumably he <deleted> off some influential person in Hua Hin.  Maybe another British boiler room boy who paid the BiB more.  Perhaps he will also buy his way out of this one and will be toting his guns and yaba around Thailand for many more years. Thai police seem to love foreign boiler room boys and other foreign criminals, particularly if they pay well and mainly only prey on other foreigners. 

[soalbundy]

33 minutes ago, Fairynuff said:

Nothing cool about guns.

Americans and Thais think so, it's the small dick macho factor

[wombat]

8 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

a registered charity organisation and cryptocurrency 

please excuse my mirth.

[Batty]

2 hours ago, Nojohndoe said:

Aha ! Crypto-currency !  The funny money for dodgy deals? If only I used Twitter!  (dig dig)

Unlike actual cash, which is never ever used for anything dodgy, right?

[jobsworth]

8 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thai media said that the man was involved with a registered charity organisation

Not World Vision again or was it?

 

[Sig]

2 hours ago, ronster said:

Trader ? Didn’t look like he could tie his shoes from what I remember , so he’s either not a trader or very lucky .

How the hell he wasn’t deported or jailed after last time should be looked into as he was totally off his face on ice shooting towards the four seasons and they found a pile of drugs at his apartment and another gun from what I recall . ????

It's been a bull market for a while now and pretty much any idiot can get very lucky without too much difficulty. But then again, there are corrections in the market and pretty much the VAST majority of idiots lose their pants eventually. Even playing it safe and not trading, but just sitting on a decent coin during a bull market can make one easily over 100% in a few months or less IF taken out at an intelligent time. So, if an idiot got a decent amount of money that maybe he came into from a better part of his family by inheritance or something... and put it in the right place and got lucky, yeah, he could be "wealthy". Heck, I got lucky more than once with some of the coins I bought over the years... a couple of them by total luck that I got out of at over 4,500%. Sadly, those were just coins that I was playing with and only had a smaller amount in them... but even still, at that return it was still quite nice! Of course when you are being conservative and careful in your trades, you usually have to take a lot more time to make that kind of increase.... This guy sure didn't do any favors for people on the kind of visa he was on and doing the activity he was doing! The traders I know keep their activity VERY quiet. And they aren't going around doing drugs and causing mayhem. I hope this guy gets a permanent ban from the kingdom and wish he would spend at least a few months experiencing the joys of a Thai prison! It would be even better if they made him use his wealth to bribe them first, then put him away. Shooting wildly toward a populated area!?? I'm a fan of corporal punishment, but he'll never experience the punishment that I'd prefer.

[Sig]

3 hours ago, Nojohndoe said:

Aha ! Crypto-currency !  The funny money for dodgy deals? If only I used Twitter!  (dig dig)

Speaking of funny, you're hilarious! Guess what kind of money is used all over the world in vast sums more than crypto ever even began to think about being used in "dodgy deals"!?
It boggles the mind how people use this as an excuse to be against something that they know virtually nothing at all. But they do know that the U.S. Dollar, among plenty of other fiat currencies, is used in the hundreds of billions every year in corrupt deals all around the globe. But crypto is somehow a worry for dodgy deals? That is hilarious!

[fgmr]

5 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Bretta pistols were all the rage 20 or 30 years ago when they were still used by US forces but now Thais are crazy about Glocks which are easier to shoot and just as reliable with a greater cool factor.  Also spare parts high capacity mags are readily available and Glocks are easy to tune up. There must a lot of unwanted Berettas floating around as well as old revolvers, of which he also had one.  Thais often don't realise they can easily inherit a gun from a deceased family member to register it in their own name and legally sell it, if they have no use for it. So they just tend to sell old guns of deceased family members into the black market, where they can fall into the hands of sleezy farang yobs and crims in Pattaya, Hua Hin & etc.

 

Cops can't hold anyone responsible for these guns as the registered owner is dead and the family will just say they never saw the gun in the deceased's possessions, so he must have lost it or sold it before he died.  Another route for distribution of genuine firearms is the Interior Ministry's civil service welfare scheme that imports huge quantities of guns to sell at discounted prices to civil servants, state enterprise employees and even local defense olunteers. This is a massive money spinner for corrupt ministry officials who control the import and distribution of the guns. Many civil servants sell their guns into the black market, file a police report of a lost or stolen gun and apply to buy another one.   

Thanks Dogmatix for your info, I often wondered how such a proliferation of firearms existed in Thailand when i lived there.

[david555]

6 hours ago, Dogmatix said:

Bretta pistols were all the rage 20 or 30 years ago when they were still used by US forces but now Thais are crazy about Glocks which are easier to shoot and just as reliable with a greater cool factor.  Also spare parts high capacity mags are readily available and Glocks are easy to tune up. There must a lot of unwanted Berettas floating around as well as old revolvers, of which he also had one.  Thais often don't realise they can easily inherit a gun from a deceased family member to register it in their own name and legally sell it, if they have no use for it. So they just tend to sell old guns of deceased family members into the black market, where they can fall into the hands of sleezy farang yobs and crims in Pattaya, Hua Hin & etc.

 

Cops can't hold anyone responsible for these guns as the registered owner is dead and the family will just say they never saw the gun in the deceased's possessions, so he must have lost it or sold it before he died.  Another route for distribution of genuine firearms is the Interior Ministry's civil service welfare scheme that imports huge quantities of guns to sell at discounted prices to civil servants, state enterprise employees and even local defense olunteers. This is a massive money spinner for corrupt ministry officials who control the import and distribution of the guns. Many civil servants sell their guns into the black market, file a police report of a lost or stolen gun and apply to buy another one.   

Beretta new generation is far of from looking old ,the Beretta px4 / storm / compact & sub compact looking much more sexy cool than that stupid square looking Glock ..... most ugly gun i find ???? ....,

But nothing bad saying from his excellent working way 

[RichardColeman]

9 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

Thai media suggested he would be deported following his arrest in Hua Hin. 

I'm sure he'll be well fleeced first - be honest in this case I hope he is well fleeced before deportation 

[ukrules]

48 minutes ago, Sig said:

Shooting wildly toward a populated area!?? I'm a fan of corporal punishment, but he'll never experience the punishment that I'd prefer.

I'll bet he was well putside the 100 meter range of the gun when he was firing it making the whole incident quite irrelevant.

 

Of course you would still hear it on the beach.

 

[sawadee1947]

Get him rotten for ever in Thai prison. No Mercy, ????

[connda]

9 hours ago, Jonathan Fairfield said:

It is not clear if he ever faced formal charges for the incident in Samui, which took place last February.
 

Resoved with an untraceable brown envelop. 

[Nojohndoe]

1 hour ago, Sig said:

Speaking of funny, you're hilarious! Guess what kind of money is used all over the world in vast sums more than crypto ever even began to think about being used in "dodgy deals"!?
It boggles the mind how people use this as an excuse to be against something that they know virtually nothing at all. But they do know that the U.S. Dollar, among plenty of other fiat currencies, is used in the hundreds of billions every year in corrupt deals all around the globe. But crypto is somehow a worry for dodgy deals? That is hilarious!

Wow! Ever so sensitive! But where and when did I say I was against crypto? Or where I said fiat currency is not used for dodgy deals? Nice tho' that you inadvertently concede  cryptocurrency can also be used for dodgy deals. However is it not so that fiat currency is minted and recorded on a ledger according to national treasuries providing comparative trading values whereas crypto can be "created" , "mined", in an electronic smokescreen yet is ultimately "valued" in fiat comparisons even to each other?

I do believe that eventually "money" will eventually cease to physically exist in exchange for electronic accreditation of purchasing capacity or debit liability. All good until a major solar flare or nuclear war event !

Meanwhile be happy with your own convictions.

oops!(convictions being in what you are convinced about, not the result of dodgy deals gone wrong )

????

 

[herfiehandbag]

4 hours ago, tonray said:

What is clear however, is that he had the means to make any charges disappear.

I wonder if he will (have the money) this time round?

 

I doubt that the people of influence will accept cryptocurrency!

[sambum]

10 hours ago, smedly said:

not exactly clear why he was arrested, maybe someone wants a Ferrari 

Not exactly clear whether he was charged for the gun offences in Samui either, according to the report but what is clear is :-

 

"The 33 year old man, who has previously been described as a wealthy cryptocurrency trader................."