Police Arrest Pakistanis With 112 Stolen Passport

[george]

Thai police arrest two Pakistani men, seize 112 stolen passports

BANGKOK: --Thai police arrested two Pakistani men for allegedly purchasing stolen passports that were to be altered and then sold, police said on Sunday. They seized a total of 112 passports.

Acting on a tip, police investigators followed Muhammad Saqib and Aman Ullah on Saturday in the parking lot of Bangkok’s international airport, a tourist police bureau statement said.

Police arrested the men after a foreign woman gave them a gray suitcase in which police later found 58 stolen passports from 13 countries, mostly European, the statement said.

The woman fled the scene and escaped, it said.

It said Saqib told police that they had met the woman, identified as an Italian named Tara, near the popular backpacker street Khao San Road. It said they ordered and purchased the passports, which she delivered to them on Saturday.

Near the airport, police later found a bag belonging to the woman which contained 54 more stolen passports, the statement said.

It said the suspects had planned to deliver the passports to a foreigner named Johnny who would alter and then sell them.

The passports were from 10 European countries, New Zealand, Vietnam and Israel. Fifty-three were from France and 25 were from Northern Ireland, tourist police said.

The suspects have been charged with possession of stolen property and face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a 10,000 baht (US$243; Ð200) fine.

Thailand is a center for stolen and fake passports. Police had been investigating this case after receiving reports of stolen passports from tourist police in the popular resort areas of Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai, the statement said.

--Khaleej Times, PK, 2005-08-22

[ovenman]

Thailand is a center for stolen and fake passports.

A hub by any other name...

[malcolminthemiddle]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

[Maejo Man]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

[Rinrada]

At least on this occasion they appeared to have been stolen unlike the recent English/Algerian lad who was simply carrying fake docs....

..what ever happened to him?

[malcolminthemiddle]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

An apology?

[Maestro]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

Are you sure about that?

QUOTE

From : TAT Bangkok <[email protected]>

Sent : 17 August 2004 09:18:43

To : ▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌

Subject : Re: passport requirement

| | | Inbox

Dear Sir ,

According your mail we would like to inform you that ,normorly you have

to carry your passport with you all the time ,for more information I recomment

you visited in web site : www.tourist.police.go.th

e-mail : [email protected] and call direct to touris police tel:1155

Best regards,

W.N.

Information section

E-mail: [email protected]

Tourism Authority of Thailand (www.tat.or.th)

Quoting ▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌▌:

>

> Is it true that tourists in Thailand must carry their passports with them all

> the time while in Bangkok? I read the following today in a letter to the

> editor of The Nation:

> ***

> My wife and I are in Thailand for about three weeks as tourists. On Sunday,

> after dinner, we wanted to have a drink at the well-known Q Bar on Sukhumvit

> Soi 11. Both of us and another friend could not enter the place because we

> didn't bring along our passports, which we kept at our hotel, the Conrad. I

> understand that the Interior Minister in Thailand is very eager to prevent

> underaged patrons from entering pubs and bars. However, all of us are around

> 50 (yes, 50) years old. Today I read in your newspaper that many foreigners

> were fined the day before at the same bar because they didn't carry their

> passports.

> ***

> Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/page.news.php3?clid=13

UNQUOTE

Does that website of the Royal Thai Police (http://police.go.th/trenglish.htm) have any information to the effect that a photocopy of the passport is sufficient? I could not find that information.

Even if a copy were theoretically sufficient, would the members of the Royal Thai Police know it and live by it?

[Maestro]

From http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

I can't get to that web page, neither with Mozilla Firefox nor with Microsoft Internet Explorer.

Nor can I find the page on the site of the Thai police with the relevant information. I know it's there, somewhere. I found http://tourist.police.go.th/eng/index.php, but that is useless.

[sriracha john]

*edit*... dang double post. The "real" one follows.

Edited August 22, 2005 by sriracha john

[sriracha john]

Acting on a tip, police investigators followed Muhammad Saqib and Aman Ullah on Saturday in the parking lot of Bangkok’s international airport, a tourist police bureau statement said.

The woman fled the scene and escaped, it said.

Rather surprising that after receiving a tip and instituting what I would have thought to be fairly tight surveillance on the suspects, that someone having direct contact with the suspects (the woman) was subsequently able to simply flee, escape and disappear??? Particularly, for a female foreigner to be able to do that is amazing.

It said the suspects had planned to deliver the passports to a foreigner named Johnny who would alter and then sell them.

Just for the record, this is NOT me...and I despise him for soiling the good name of John. 

The suspects have been charged with possession of stolen property and face a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a 10,000 baht (US$243; Ð200) fine.

Is it just me, or does it seem like this crime with so many other crimes, that the fines don't equate evenly with the jail terms?? Lengthy jail terms can be handed down along with what are compartively meager fines.

Thailand is a center for stolen and fake passports. Police had been investigating this case after receiving reports of stolen passports from tourist police in the popular resort areas of Pattaya, Phuket and Chiang Mai, the statement said.

Stolen indeed... really does put a damper on things to risk carrying your passport, which is required, whilst out and about... certainly easy enough to simply lose it, but then to know there are people actively trying to remove it from you is pause for particular concern.

[Maejo Man]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

An apology?

None....it's a dud link

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[malcolminthemiddle]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

An apology?

None....it's a dud link

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try this

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

[mai_ow]

Looking at the number of stolen passports (+100), I am wondering how they were taken. Is it by simply pickpocketing? Or there are much more elaboarte methods?

[Rinrada]

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

Thats all right then...

I will now carry my original passport...issued 1969 and now out of date but assume should be OK

[Sphere]

I will now carry my original passport...issued 1969 and now out of date but assume should be OK  

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yeah, those pages should be okay to roll a few joints over the weekend at the immigration detention centre when they arrest you this Friday evening.

[Rinrada]

dont smoke

[Maejo Man]

Yet the law requires visiting foreigners to carry their passports with them at all times, providing just the opportunity these professionals are looking for.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Not correct. Copies will suffice.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

From http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

By law, tourists are expected to carry their original passports at all times in Thailand.

An apology?

None....it's a dud link

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Try this

http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagena...d=1013618386505

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What does the british travel warning page have to do with the price of hay?