Police to launch crackdown on foreign criminal gangs including Samui and Phuket Bandidos

BANGKOK: -- According to Pol Lt Gen Dechnargong Suthichanbancha, the Assistant National Police Chief, the police have given themselves three months to launch a major crackdown on foreign gangs operating in Thailand.

Leading toe operation to suppress foreign criminal outfits will be the CIB (Central Investigation Bureau) an organization that h as the authority to make arrests anywhere in the country. The police will be supported by a team of law-enforcement agencies under the new Transnational Crime Coordination Centre or TCCC.

Theft, internet fraud and forest land encroachment cases headed by foreigners will be at the forefront of the crackdown.

In a report in the Bangkok post Pol Lt Gen Dechnarong said that many foreigners have committed crimes in Thailand, mainly targeting Thais, and in some fraud cases foreign ganags took the money they stole from their victims to other countries. He believes that if the situation is left unchecked the crime rate will continue to rise and more Thai nationals will fall prey to foreign scams, “the country is now opening doors to more foreign visitors” he added.

Plans for investigations are now underway, with information from the police main database. Teams have analyized gangs methods and are now considering which laws they may invoke when pressing charges against them.

The Crime Suppression Division will focus on transnational gangs involved in illegal weapons trade, car and general theft and the Tourist police division will be investigating fraud rings and black money gangs who persuade the affluent nationals to part with money used to remove dye from cash.

The Technology Crime Suppression Division will be focusing their attention on internet crimes such as internet hacking and call centre scams.

The Economic Crime Suppression Division will be focusing on credit card skimming, money laundering and pyramid schemes.

The Anti-Human Trafficking division will be looking into human trafficking as well as missing person cases.

The Consumer Protection Police Division will handle the illegal trade of imported food suppliments and drugs.

The Natural Resources and Environmental Crime Suppression Division will tackle illicit natural resources and wildlife trading.

The Marine Division will be cracking down on any gang activity that pollutes the environment and the Highway Police and Railway Police will support other divisions by tracking and arresting suspects on the run.

Other activities to be stamped out include “romance scams”, where Thai and foreign criminals use social media to approach middle-aged, middle-class Thai women who are either single or divorced. They pretend to be romantically interested in the women, and sometimes trick them into believing in the prospect of marriage. Once they have their trust, the criminals ask for a money transfer.

In other scams, they use “skimmers”, information-theft devices to swipe electronic data from ATM and credit cards. They later transfer the stolen data to fake cards.

Police say other criminals rent houses in Bangkok and other major cities and then break into their neighbors’ homes.

Call center gangs, mostly operated by Chinese with help from Thai accomplices, call their potential victims pretending to be bank officers or state officials.

They say the victims’ bank account has problems that need to be addressed right away — and ask them for their personal banking data.

Some criminal organizations smuggle carcasses of protected species and ivory from Indonesia and Malaysia into Thailand through the southern borders.

The illicit products are then smuggled to China and to Cambodia and Vietnam.

Police say another gang, known as the “Bandidos”, has been operating on Koh Samui in Surat Thani and Phuket. The gang obtained land title deeds illegally with the help of corrupt officials and built resorts.

-- Samui Times 2014-12-09

Another hub of crackdowns.

Edited December 9, 201411 yr by JetsetBkk

Better to look closer to home. Before foreigners!

So how many foreigners are involved in Internet fraud , theft and forest land ? In comparison to thai?

Do foreigners but up forests? Or do thai officials ?

Theft? Theft by thai is a daily occurrence , theft by maids, theft by store assistants, theft by staff.

Internet fraud? Like what? An occasional dumb dumb looking for love ends up sending money to Nigerian scammer in comparison to hundreds if not thousands of hookers scamming money from dating sites from foreigners.

I wish one day thai authorities would deal with the actual problems instead of trying to suck one out of thumb.

Ehh....What about just going through the Interchange tower? It's closer than Samui and Phuket - There is a minimum of three offices there, that are associated to call center scams/fake IPO's. And at least one crooked/fake law-office. And properly more, that i don't know about...

Another thing is, that the Bandidos clowns, that was running all those "fake land deals". Was arrested AND convicted years ago, as far as i know they are not a big player anymore. They did bribe their way to better "accommodation" in prison, but they are still there.

Well done on the hubba hubba crackdown on these foreign miscreants, buts how's about a hubba hubba crackdown on the local criminals first.....woops silly me.....most work for the RTP

the bandidos land papers story was from about 8 YEARS AGO

the bandidos land papers story was from about 8 YEARS AGO

Come one give them a chance, the RTP have a very heavy " case load" you know

So how many foreigners are involved in Internet fraud , theft and forest land ? In comparison to thai?

Do foreigners but up forests? Or do thai officials ?

Theft? Theft by thai is a daily occurrence , theft by maids, theft by store assistants, theft by staff.

Internet fraud? Like what? An occasional dumb dumb looking for love ends up sending money to Nigerian scammer in comparison to hundreds if not thousands of hookers scamming money from dating sites from foreigners.

I wish one day thai authorities would deal with the actual problems instead of trying to suck one out of thumb.

To be fair, there has been some pretty serious scams running especially from Bangkok. Centered around the people running fake IPO-scams from callcenters in the Thong Lor area. Their main office is guarded and located in the Interchange tower in ASOKE. The IPO scams is said to return up to 80 million USD annual, on top of that, these bastards own a large chunk of the gogobars in Nana plaza, and is heavily represented in soi 11.

It's about time, that this whole operation is dismantled and the 4 major players is jailed. Thai police and especially the army know EXCATLY who these people are....i guess everyone can guess why.

Edited December 9, 201411 yr by KhunMoo

Be careful if you have any foliage in your bag in the Asok or Thonglor areas

According to Pol Lt Gen Dechnargong Suthichanbancha, the Assistant National Police Chief, the police have given themselves three months to launch a major crackdown on foreign gangs operating in Thailand.

............great to see they're not rushing into it, leaving plenty of time for meticulous forward planning.

What about the hells angels scum operating in pattaya, phuket, samui extorting business owners, dealing drugs and taking over entire venues?

I had to close up my bar and move back to england because of the scumbags. Lets hope the BIB puts an end to all of this.

Edited December 9, 201411 yr by NeverFaFer

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According to Pol Lt Gen Dechnargong Suthichanbancha, the Assistant National Police Chief, the police have given themselves three months to launch a major crackdown on foreign gangs operating in Thailand.

............great to see they're not rushing into it, leaving plenty of time for meticulous forward planning.

You don't want to be rushing into a "Crack down" . Announce it 3 months in advance and allow people to prepare

So how many foreigners are involved in Internet fraud , theft and forest land ? In comparison to thai?

Do foreigners but up forests? Or do thai officials ?

Theft? Theft by thai is a daily occurrence , theft by maids, theft by store assistants, theft by staff.

Internet fraud? Like what? An occasional dumb dumb looking for love ends up sending money to Nigerian scammer in comparison to hundreds if not thousands of hookers scamming money from dating sites from foreigners.

I wish one day thai authorities would deal with the actual problems instead of trying to suck one out of thumb.

Thailand, do something about these hundreds of Thai prostitutes and so-called good girls who are lying, deceiving, fraudulent criminals.

Thailand, do something about your police force who are corrupt, scamming organized criminals.

Thailand, do something about jet ski scammers, jewelry shop scammers....

Oh, jeeze the list is endless of the Thai on foreigner crime here and you people have the nerve to go after.... forest encroachment by foreigners?

Thailand, grow up!

Rumour has it that all foreign criminals arrested will be charged with taking an employment opportunity from a Thai national as such positions it appears are on the list stating that it is a restricted occupation and thus only Thai nationals are to be employed in such ventures.

The 'foreigner bad' and foreigner harrassment has started. Still flag wavin'?

What about the Thai Bandidos? Tuk Tuk Bandidos? Jet Ski Bandidos? Corrupt in brown uniform Bandidos? This reformed bandido catcher wants to know.

admitting the gangs above mentioned are not fictional....dont you think they will read the news and fly away,dear Pol Lt Gen Dechnargong Suthichanbancha???????

Any foreign bad boy who gets too big in siam shares the faith of icarus, cows to be milked before the slaughter...and plenty more where they came from.

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Seems like they don't like the competition to me!

What about the Thai Bandidos? Tuk Tuk Bandidos? Jet Ski Bandidos? Corrupt in brown uniform Bandidos? This reformed bandido catcher wants to know.

Sorry but those are promoting "Thainess"

Well it is about time they start focusing on Samui. But it is not only the Bandidos. It is also the Want to be Mafia criminal British and Russians as well that a operating on Samui.

​Also the local Thai Mafia and Taxi Mafia are Very Corrupt and destroying Samui and making tourist not wanting to return...

Seems like they don't like the competition to me!

Xenophobia at is best.

In the words of Bart Simpson "It was not me, or Milhouse or Somchai orrrrrrrrr"

And in the words of UKIP "Bloody foreigners"

And lots and lots of other options...Close the borders now.

will there be anyone left to run the place with so many criminals behind bars

So how do you say "the pot calling the kettle black" in Thai, I wonder?

cutting down the competition for the local ciiminals

That article almost sounds as if this entire country were awash with foreign criminals and gangs.

While I do not doubt that they actually do exist to a certain extend, they're surely not nearly as ubiquitous as suggested in this article.

On the other hand we all know who really makes up the vast, vast, vast, vast, vast majority of criminal elements in this country bent on pouncing on foreigners and locals alike, stealing and scamming their way to sometimes extremely healthy bank accounts.

Foreigners encroaching on forest land? Give me a break!

Yeah they should crack down on themselves first.

This xenophobia is getting worse. I applaud them cracking down on criminals but targeting the minimal number of foreigners compared to the huge number of Thais engaged in fraud and other serious and violent crime just makes it another witch hunt. Why can't they just target criminals full stop no matter where they come from. There is supposed to be no racism in Thailand .... Ha bloody ha