Bangkok police raid On Nut church, bust 20 undocumented African migrants

[Borzandy]

Were they Muslims converted for the occasion

[mok199]

.............JUST CHECK THIER TEMPURATURE''....

[Songlaw]

Everyone knows Nigerians in Thailand are drug dealers. Does anyone do much about it? No. Deport the ones without proper documentation.

Totally agree but expect the PC Brigade on here to attack your comment anytime soon

Totally disagree.

It took me a while to figure out what PC might mean to the brain trust here on TVF, Bluespunk. There's some pretty obscure word usage bandied about with embarrassing frequency. Based on this particular comment, it seems safe to assume that PC has somehow morphed into an acronym for "Intelligent." So much acronym confusion in general rears its head here, it would be pointless to attempt to pawn it off on the ESL crowd, which by and large deserves a pat on the back, especially by comparison. Most astounding is the fact that with the genius expats of all stripes represented on this site, that there could still be so many problems left unsolved in our former homelands. A pity that so many found space for their "sensibilities" in their travel bags. So, has "everybody" also become a synonym for "nobody?" Seems like you can swap them out on 99% of the comments here and never miss a beat.

[luckyman]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

As more than 80% of all foreign inmates in Thai jails are of African descent, and drug trade is there offense of choice, I do not think it is strange at all to expect drugs or drug users in a church as in the above.

[cup-O-coffee]

Why would they search a church for drug use, Thai cops using racial profiling?.

They is always one person that uses the race card

Because it is a debatable fact that one must be a racist to use that word. They cannot prove that they are not, nor can they prove that their target of obsession is. Their hate and/or agenda simply will not allow for discussion on the matter, which makes any debatable facts non-existent. The entire aim of using the racist card is to distract from what is really going on. Just a small take on my view.

This bust may seem racist to a racis,t who keeps statistics on racism, and secretly hates people who recognize them as racist, but in fact, were they here legally, then the police would have joined in on a chorus of Koom ba ya and been on their way.

Note to Nigerians: whatever else you may do, please keep your passports and visa documents up to date.

[Songlaw]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Why would someone who believes in God not approve of drugs. He made them as part of creation for our use and enjoyment. Th first miracle of Jesus was to turn water into wine. Perhaps you are confusing people who believe in god with those right wing christian groups who promoted their view of the bible in 1870 USA and onwards, primarily to support the grain/booze business.

Nope.

I lived in Ghana for two years and met a lot of very earnest Christian evangelicals.

They had no time or tolerance for drugs and many were teetotal.

They were fundamentalists to the core.

Much like this group sound like.

Raiding their churches looking for drugs is a waste of time.

If you were in power and wanted to create a veneer of "action" while keeping risk and/or outcry to an absolute minimum, other than mute women and children, who else could you possibly go after? There has only been one concept that has saved humankind during the most trying of times. That of "sanctuary." Once violated, it never returns. I am not speaking in religious terms either. I am speaking in humanitarian terms. True bible believing churches are never going to be a problem for anyone except themselves. The temples here often serve as havens for participants in all sorts of mayhem. If you really want to show a change in tide, "raid" them. Leave the churches and the Africans, excepting they who are actually caught in acts of criminality, alone.

[Bluespunk]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

As more than 80% of all foreign inmates in Thai jails are of African descent, and drug trade is there offense of choice, I do not think it is strange at all to expect drugs or drug users in a church as in the above.

I do and the fact they found none backs my view up.

Do you have a link to your 80% stat?

[jaywalker]

Sorry but Nigerians have such a bad reputation around the world, deserved or not, that they should be made to apply for a visa, even for a holiday, before they are allowed to visit Thailand.

This could help keep some of the less desirable ones away.

So do Russians Chiese & Israelis. Raid their homes, embassies and places of worship with militarized police swat teams? Genius thinking buddy.

I wish a SWAT team would raid those Cambodians near my Mom's house.

30 years ago they were burning crosses 300 yards away from there, which was one extreme I disagree with.

Now foreign folks seem to have taken over the neighborhood. It's in the middle of no where Florida as well. One nephew (I have many nephews & nieces) is a deputy sheriff in the local county.

I keep telling Mom to get him involved. She (78) refuses to do so as "That would be nepotism!"... She doesn't know the meaning of that word 'nepotism', but that's what she's saying, bless her heart.

Arrrgh!

I need to call that boy-sheriff/deputy myself I guess (he's 35 or so) & tell him to go put the fear of his badge into them or get some of his buddies to do so. That boy loves his grand-ma for sure.

Asian culture is quite exotic, and pretty cool, but...

Were they all born so stone-cold deaf that they have to play everything from disco music to Buddhist weddings to Buddhist funerals to Mosques at 5,999 million decibels?

Look up 28707 CR 46A Sorrento FL 32776 USA on Google Earth.

Quite incredible that I can be in Thailand and hear Asian music (which is cool at a decent volume level), over the phone, on my Mother's phone that is hundreds of yards/meters away.

Imagine playing Led Zepplin at that level in a Thai neighborhood. I'd enjoy it. I doubt they would though, so I never entertained the thought until just now.

[hughben]

I wonder when the doors were charged down, the Thais got the ubiquitous, "Hey man, what's up?"

If they went down soi 1 and the back alleys they would probably find drug dealers.

Of those that do sell, is it only Nigerian 'Christians' selling drugs?

[Strangebrew]

About time Mr. PM told you about them several months ago.

[jdinasia]

There are several African Christian (should those be reversed?) between Onnuch and SriNakarin/Seacon Square area that appear a bit Sketchy

[kieran2698]

i dont like the police raiding a place of cult heavily armed

Tough. Seems like a good result to me. Twenty per cent of the congregation busted for illegal immigration status.

I agree with the "heavily armed" bit I'm glad they raided the church considering the outcome...

Doesn't say much for the 'Faith' of the 20 illegals when they can thumb their nose at the law of the land and feel ok about worshipping their god! Seems like their fair faith is about as valid as their god! (Since he/she didn't do anything about it either! - Or maybe... that's why the cops came??)

Nothing wrong with rounding up THOSE kind of hypocrites! I hope they unceremoniously get shipped back home... Thailand is probably better off without them I would think.

Perhaps you could point us to the verse which says you should have a valid visa. Plenty of versus condemn much of what you just said, blasphemy is what that's called.

Yes, the Bible, Koran & others can be interpreted in many ways, yet that pesky bit about not having your papers in order and passports & visas does seem to be absent except in the laws of corrupt governments that want to fleece all & sundry, ie: THEIR SHEEPLE.

I was recently "pulled over" by a city policeman in the USA for "looking suspicious".

His first words were "Show me your ID!".

I'm Caucasian, cop was Caucasian. It was 11:15 PM & I was walking down a sidewalk.

Very much reminded me of the World War 2 movies where the Gestapo would say "Show me your papers!".

==============

Still waiting for any logical debate on who the victim is/who is being hurt by someone that over-stays their visa in Thailand. Not like a foreigner can apply for asylum nor government aid in Thailand.

Anyone? Anyone?

Its not hurting anyone much that's for sure, a very small loss of revenue. The reason so many Nigerians are here illegally is due to their past situation. Before they built a Thai embassy in Nigeria the only way they could get a visa was via London which was very difficult. Instead many proffesionals and students chose to buy fake visas and enter illegally. Obviously this was not the correct way to go about it but these are very poor people leaving a country where daily risks include house invasions by armed gangs. Many Nigerians have come simply to bettertheir llives, unfortunately it doesn't work out for all and some have turned to crime ruining the name of all of them. Strange how the criminal farrangs never seem to ruin the name of their countries in the small minds of these same people.

[Estrada]

Met the pastor of this church in Seacon Square.

A friend runs a video copying company and the pastor got him to make a lot of copies of a recruitment video which appeared to me to be a scam like so many evangelical churches, set up to mainly obtain money from the congregation rather than save their souls.

At that time the church was on Phatanakarn Road but was raided by the police and a lot of illegals were arrested. The church then moved to Onnuch Soi 44. There are a lot of Nigerians hanging around soi 44 and soi 46 where I live, some of whom attend that church. A lot have been arrested in the past for drug dealing and more recently for various other scams such as marriage scams (send me the airticket), black money and advance fee scams(known as a 419 scams). The picture appears to show the "Thai Army "Happy Squad" with one police officer in attendance, who have been sent by the General to every community around here to make sure everyone is "Happy".

[kieran2698]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

As more than 80% of all foreign inmates in Thai jails are of African descent, and drug trade is there offense of choice, I do not think it is strange at all to expect drugs or drug users in a church as in the above.

I do and the fact they found none backs my view up.

Do you have a link to your 80% stat?

No, there is no link because they made that up. Africans make up just 3% of foreign inmates. The vast majority being Asians, without including the Asians then Africans make up 48%. There are 9091 foreign inmates, 8528 Asians, 274 Africans, 149 Europeans, 47 north Americans, 15 australasians and 78 others.

[Rooney860]

What the bloody hell are you on Manic? Think they should have raided your gaff!!!! 555555

[Bluespunk]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

As more than 80% of all foreign inmates in Thai jails are of African descent, and drug trade is there offense of choice, I do not think it is strange at all to expect drugs or drug users in a church as in the above.

I do and the fact they found none backs my view up.

Do you have a link to your 80% stat?

No, there is no link because they made that up. Africans make up just 3% of foreign inmates. The vast majority being Asians, without including the Asians then Africans make up 48%. There are 9091 foreign inmates, 8528 Asians, 274 Africans, 149 Europeans, 47 north Americans, 15 australasians and 78 others.

That was my suspicion.

[Alwyn]

The first time ever in the history of Thailand a noise complaint was acted on. Probably why they were tooled up to the nines as they'd never done it before. I can understand them being armed because IF there were drugs and drug dealers there it might have come on top. Thankfully it didn't. I'd like to see them now send those heavilly armed guys down south to offer some help and do some good.

[gbswales]

arguably they have got rid of 20 potential dealers so what is the problem. A church is just a building like any other

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Thats strange, thai jails are full of drugs dealing Nigerians...

Well for a start let me say: utter BS.

Now that's out of the way let's get more specific shall we?

A: the report says no drugs were found. Did you read that? It was quite clear, it states no drugs were found, I repeat NO drugs were found.

B: my post referred to no drugs being found on this raid (did you see that bit in the report?) and I wasn't surprised as evangelical churches and assorted god botherers do not like drugs.

By the way, did you notice in the OP they say NO drugs were found, interesting that.

C: did you just let prejudice guide your post rather than reading the OP.

Finally, did you notice they found no drugs were found on this raid?

Not a one, none at all.

Makes you wonder hey.

[Bluespunk]

arguably they have got rid of 20 potential dealers so what is the problem. A church is just a building like any other

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

Thats strange, thai jails are full of drugs dealing Nigerians...

Well for a start let me say: utter BS.

Now that's out of the way let's get more specific shall we?

A: the report says no drugs were found. Did you read that? It was quite clear, it states no drugs were found, I repeat NO drugs were found.

B: my post referred to no drugs being found on this raid (did you see that bit in the report?) and I wasn't surprised as evangelical churches and assorted god botherers do not like drugs.

By the way, did you notice in the OP they say NO drugs were found, interesting that.

C: did you just let prejudice guide your post rather than reading the OP.

Finally, did you notice they found no drugs were found on this raid?

Not a one, none at all.

Makes you wonder hey.

The problem is the attitude of a poster who feels the gaols are full of Nigerians [wrong] and that all Nigerians are drug dealers [equally wrong].

In effect prejudicial non-thinking.

[Wilsonandson]

Is there any updates on this story? Where are the 20 Nigerians arrested now? In immigration cells? Locked up like cattle. Take a look what's happening in the US. Racial inequalities will not be tolerated by people anymore. Stand up for your fellow man and say "I have a dream..." you know the rest. Whadderya say, are you with me brothers?

[HerbalEd]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

So you know for a fact that each and every one of them is drug free, do you? Ever hear of the Italia mafia? Many of them believe in god also and go to church and confession quite regularly.

[Bluespunk]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

So you know for a fact that each and every one of them is drug free, do you? Ever hear of the Italia mafia? Many of them believe in god also and go to church and confession quite regularly.

Did you read the OP? Makes it very clear no drugs were found.

[wooloomooloo]

Stand up for your fellow man and say "I have a dream..." you know the rest. Whadderya say, are you with me brothers?

Good luck with that. TIT.

[buggerlugs]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

You obviously know nothing about Nigerians or Nigeria. I have lived and worked there for many years and this supposed conflict of interest or conscience would not be a problem. to most people there. The same staff I had who attended church for 4 or 5 hours on Sunday also believed in Ju Ju with all their hearts and would think nothing wrong in coming out of church and doing a drug deal. Those same evangelical churches promise to cure someone from aids if they give enough Nira.... Guaranteed!

Grow up.

[Robert2006]

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Good riddance to those flouting Thai law.

Thai laws? Are you kidding? How long have you lived in Thailand? Laws are a function of how much money you have to buy one.

If you like a system were gangsters in military gear show up to enforce laws only on people without the money to pay off police state goons then I can understand how your happy living there.

[Bluespunk]

It was an evangelical church for pity's sake.

If they expected to find drugs in such a place then their intelligence gathering unit is short of intelligence.

These people actually believe their is a god and do not look kindly upon drug use at all.

As for proper documentation, well that's another story....they'd probably say the Bible is all the documentation they need or some sort of BS or other.

You obviously know nothing about Nigerians or Nigeria. I have lived and worked there for many years and this supposed conflict of interest or conscience would not be a problem. to most people there. The same staff I had who attended church for 4 or 5 hours on Sunday also believed in Ju Ju with all their hearts and would think nothing wrong in coming out of church and doing a drug deal. Those same evangelical churches promise to cure someone from aids if they give enough Nira.... Guaranteed!

Grow up.

You're wrong on so many counts when you talk about my knowledge of West africa, mostly Ghana and Nigeria, so don't tell me what I do or not know anything about.

I repeat as I have had to do so many times, NO drugs were found in the raid.

None.

Not a one.

Nothing at all.

Read what people are posting about before you jump in, it's what grown ups do.

I pointed out the stupidity of raiding an evangelical church and looking for drugs. Never going to be there. The church elders/pastors would not take kindly to it.

Guaranteed.

[wooloomooloo]

The church elders/pastors would not take kindly to it.

Maybe the elders can check on the validity of their congregations immigration status in future.

[Bluespunk]

The church elders/pastors would not take kindly to it.

Maybe the elders can check on the validity of their congregations immigration status in future.

No problem there.

Everyone should obey visa rules.

Regardless of nationality, creed and colour.

[jdinasia]

Is there any updates on this story? Where are the 20 Nigerians arrested now? In immigration cells? Locked up like cattle. Take a look what's happening in the US. Racial inequalities will not be tolerated by people anymore. Stand up for your fellow man and say "I have a dream..." you know the rest. Whadderya say, are you with me brothers?

No.

Not with you on this. This is not the US, and it is not a right for people to live here illegally.

[jdinasia]

Sick puppy if you like a police state...different tune with arms turned your direction, wouldn't it be? Surely this was overly dramatic given a noise complaint.

If you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen.

Good riddance to those flouting Thai law.

Thai laws? Are you kidding? How long have you lived in Thailand? Laws are a function of how much money you have to buy one.

If you like a system were gangsters in military gear show up to enforce laws only on people without the money to pay off police state goons then I can understand how your happy living there.

Should we assume from your post that you either do not live or visit here. Or that you are unhappy about living /visiting here?