People smuggler and 10 migrants arrested near Phuket
Darawan Naknakhon


The 10 Burmese migrants - three demonstrating how they hid in the boot of the car.

PHUKET: -- Ten Burmese nationals who were intending to work in Thailand illegally and a man who had transported them after they arrived were arrested yesterday (May 6).

The arrests came after a local village headman and district chief were tipped off by local residents to suspicious activity.

Local residents had told the village headman and district chief that a Nissan Neo car had stopped on two occasions at the entrance to the Borhin waterfall in Baan Bangsak, Takua Pa and dropped off three people each time.

At 10:30pm the village headman and distrct chief government officials went to the drop-off site and found the car and 10 Burmese – seven men, two women and a young boy.

As officials approached the driver sped away towards Khao Lak.

Police at a checkpoint in Khao Lak were alerted of the incident and told to stop the car it if it approached the checkpoint. This they did soon afterwards.

They took the driver, Ranong resident Pidej Janjeur, 36, to Takua Pa District Office for questioning. The 10 Burmese had already been taken there.

When questioned by police, Pidej said, “A man named Bung hired me to picked up 10 Burmese workers from the fishing pier in Kuraburi.

“I was to be paid B2,300 for each person I dropped off at a bus stop in Khok Kloy [just north of Phuket].

“We travelled from Kuraburi towards Takua Pa but you had a checkpoint there so we stopped 500 metres short and I smuggled three Burmese past the checkpoint in the boot of the car and dropped them at Borhin waterfall.”

Pidej did this three times, taking three people on two occasions and four on the last trip.

All 10 Burmese, along with Pidej, were later taken to Takua Pa police station.

The Burmese all face charges of entering Thailand illegally while Pidej faces a charge of conspiracy to smuggle migrants illegally into Thailand.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/people-smuggler-and-10-migrants-arrested-near-phuket-52201.php


-- Phuket News 2015-05-08

Why don't they show the Thai perp? If it was a Burmese or any other nationality, for sure they would be shown with all the smuggled people pointing at him. Good work by the locals to point this out to the coppers.

"Pidej faces a charge of conspiracy to smuggle migrants illegally into Thailand"

If this is actually prosecuted, it would be the first Thai to face justice for trafficking arising out of the recent discovery of smuggling Burmese and Rohingya. My money is on no prosecution, and no real effort to identify the ringleader of this smuggling operation.

' Six pack coming soon ' Are those to be added to the 10 they have already ?

Somebody did not get there cut.