Thailand - Foreigners will be arrested for not wearing masks

Many foreign visitors are not wearing face masks and gather in groups in violation of Covid-19 disease control regulations, and will be prosecuted if they fail to comply, a government spokesman warned on Monday
Apisamai Srirangson, a spokeswoman for the Centre for Covid-19 Situation Administration, said visitors from many countries arrived for business meetings in sandbox provinces.

Provincial representatives told the CCSA that not only did these visitors fail to wear face masks at meetings, they also gathered for parties without masks and caused Covid-19 transmission, Dr Apisamai said.

Hotel staff warned them they had to follow the rules, she said.

Dr Apisamai said the Communicable Disease Act required people to wear face masks in public places and also while at gatherings.

Repeated violation carried a fine of up to 20,000 baht, she said.

“Visitors must comply, or they will be prosecuted,” Dr Apisamai said. – Bangkok Post

Source - BangkokJack

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#Thailand - 14,000 taxi drivers arrested in 12 months: police

More than 14,000 taxi drivers have been arrested and fined for breaking the law, including refusing to accept passengers, during the past year, a deputy tourist police chief said Friday.

Maj Gen Surachet Hakpal, deputy commissioner of the Tourist Police Bureau, held a press conference in Phaholyothin with the Land Transport Department to announce results of the operation to clean up the taxi trade launched last September.

Surachet said police from several agencies, including tourist police, and 191 Special Operation police and officials of the Land Transport Department, have been enforcing the law against taxi drivers so passengers would not be exploited.

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 Surachet said 4,811 taxi drivers were arrested for refusing to accept passengers without justification, which violated Article 93 of the Land Traffic Act.

Source - TheNation 

Nine Cambodians arrested for felling, processing Siamese rosewood trees

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Thai park officials and troops detained nine Cambodians for allegedly felling and processing Siamese rosewoods inside forest reserves in Sa Kaew’s Mueang district.

Pang Si Da National Park chief Panatchakorn Phobanthit said the arrests were made on Monday following a tip-off .

Panatchakorn said the informant told authorities a large group of Cambodians were felling trees in the Kaeng Dinso, Kaeng Yai and Satone national forest reserves.

  

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 Park officials and troops later found around 40 Cambodians walking in line, each carrying a plank of Siamese rosewood on their back to smuggle the precious wood out of the forest. On seeing the authorities approach, they ran into the forest – but nine were apprehended.

Officials seized 75 planks and two chainsaws.

 The arrested Cambodians said they sneaked across the border at night and walked four days to the forest reserves. They spent five days processing the planks before starting to walk back when the authorities swooped.

Source - TheNation

#Thailand - Senior policeman turns himself in to face underage sex charge.

Local authorities inspect night entertainment places in Mae Hong Son's Pai district.

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A HIGH-RANKING police officer accused of buying the services of an underage prostitute turned himself in yesterday as local authorities in Mae Hong Son stepped up surveillance of human trafficking and vice in the province.

According to Mae Hong Son police station superintendent Satasak Pimolthip, Chai Prakan police station deputy superintendent Pol Lt Col Mongkol Panti had acknowledged sexual involvement with a girl younger than 15.

It was reported that after Mongkol was told the allegation against him, police conducted a brief interrogation before releasing him. He is alleged to have bought sex from the young girl brought by prostitute provider Kwanhatai Ruekudom, who has already been arrested for human trafficking.

Mongkol is accused of having sex with the girl in his home in Mae Hong Son while he worked in the province.

Officials in Mae Hong Son have been trying to repair the province’s damaged reputation after a large human trafficking and sex network was exposed there. Steps are being taken to avoid similar activity in the future.

Mae Hong Son district chief Phisit Bunkitanan said that local authorities held a meeting with local businesses, hotels and restaurants to discuss prevention of human trafficking. More than 50 representatives attended.

 “We need to urgently solve this chronic problem [human trafficking] since it has already made headlines nationwide and harmed the reputation of the province,” Phisit said.

On Friday night, the Mae Hong Son Provincial Social Development and Human Security Office and local authorities led a team to inspect businesses in Pai, another famous tourist attraction. 

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Source - TheNation

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Thailand bans sexy dance moves, sexy clothes during Songkran holiday

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This Songkran, you may have to take it easy on the dance floor and opt for a turtleneck instead of a skimpy, smelly beer-logo tank top, because police will be out looking to arrest those with sexy dance moves and revealing clothing. 

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Songkran, aka the water festival, is becoming too sexy for the Thai police to handle. No more sexy girls dancing in the back of pickup trucks. No more sexy shirtless dudes in Silom. They will all be arrested. 

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The punishment for people who dance suggestively or wear suggestive clothing is a THB5,000 fine, about US$145. The news has been published all over local media. One of the reasons behind this campaign is simply to protect sexy people from crimes. Deputy Commissioner Pol. Maj. Gen. Sompong Chingduang even warned ladies not to “wear revealing clothes” or “be tempting because it will lead to sex crimes,” Daily News reported.

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So the logic here is, if there were no sexy girls, there would be no sexual assaults. Got it, sir.

It is not reported how police will define sexy dance moves. 

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Banned: new rule comes into force prohibiting visa overstayers from re-entering Thailand

From March 20, new immigration rules will come into force that will BAN foreigners from re-entering Thailand if they overstay their visa by more than 90 days.

The new rule is part of tightened security measures, Thai PBS reported.

Foreigners who voluntarily come forward will face the following bans: if they overstay for more than 90 days they will be banned from re-entering the country for a year; overstays of more than a year will face a three-year ban; overstays of more than three years will face a five-year ban; and overstays of more than five years will face a ten-year ban.

Authorities warned that those who don't hand themselves in will be arrested and prosecuted, and face longer bans. If they overstay less than a year they will be banned for five years, and if they overstay for more than a year they will be banned for ten years.

Immigration officials will ask hotels, apartments, hostels and landlords renting homes or rooms to foreigners to report the stay of foreigners so they can keep a closer track of their stay in the country.

Source: Coconuts

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28 Russian Hookers Busted In Pattaya Go-Go Raids

Two Walking Street go-go bars were busted on Monday night with Pattaya police cuffing 28 Russian and Kazakh dancers found to be working illegally.

Six women working without work permits were taken from Moulin Rouge with a further 22 arrested at Crazy Russian Girls.

Down the station background checks were run on all the women with 25 found to be working illegally. All were detained and face charges and deportation with the club owners also looking at court for illegally employing foreigners.

Raids on Russian go-go bars are nothing new with several losing their entire staffs for anywhere from a day (Moulin Rouge, Galaxy) to permanently (B-52), depending on the “agreement” they have in place with authorities to allow foreign women to dance semi-nude in Thailand when work permits for doing so are impossible to get.

Moulin Rouge was last busted on July 28, 2013.

That theatrical crackdown netted the arrests of 11 Russian employees, including nine dancers, who were threatened with deportation for working illegally or employing illegals.

Established for nearly 10 years, Moulin Rouge is hardly a secret to police. In 2008, the “misunderstanding” that led to the raid was quickly sorted out, as the eight supposedly illegal dancers were released by the end of the night and the bar was operating as usual the following night.

This time around it’s unlikely anything will be “sorted” so easily with a nationwide crackdown against human trafficking and the current wave of raids on Pattaya bars and clubs in a bid to weed out illegals and visa overstayers.

Source: stickboybangkok.com

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Erawan bombing suspect arrested in #Cambodia

Authorities escort a man arrested yesterday who is suspected to be the prime suspect in the Aug 17 bombing of the Erawan shrine. 

A foreigner suspected of involvement in last month’s bombing of the Erawan shrine in Bangkok was arrested in Cambodia and handed over to Thai authorities Tuesday, a police source said.

A informed source in the police investigative team said Cambodian police captured the suspect on Monday and arranged today's handover at the border in the Cambodian border town of Poipet in Banteay Meanchey province, opposite Sa Kaeo's Aranyaprathet district.

He was detained for preliminary investigations at a military camp in Aranyaprathet before Bangkok for further interrogations, the source added.

The source refused to state where the man was arrested in Cambodia and said he was identified only as "Yusufu".

Thai media today widely published a photo of a Chinese passport of a man matching the suspect's description. In the passport, he is identified as Yusufu Mieraili, 25, from Xinjiang province.

Xinjiang is the home province for China's Uighur Muslim minority.

The suspect was believed to be on his way from Thailand to Phnom Penh when he was captured, according to the source.

The source said a senior police officer went to Cambodia to coordinate with authorities there after it had been confirmed the suspect fled Thailand to Cambodia.

Assistant national police chief Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda is leading the investigation on the case.

Earlier, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said the man was a "main suspect" in the Aug. 17 bombing at the Ratchaprasong intersection shrine that killed 20 and injured 131.

He is believed to the person seen in CCTV footage wearing a yellow shirt and leaving a backpack behind at the shrine.

Authorities plan to hold a press conference after 5pm to release more details about the arrest of the subject, who was being flown by helicopter back to Bangkok today.
Source: BangkokPost 

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Phone data leads to arrest Bangkok Bomber

NOTHING TO CHANCE: More than 100 police and military officers were involved in the arrest. 

 News > Security Phone data leads to bomb arrest Ball bearings and bomb-building equipment found in suspect's room.

A police source close to the investigation said the arrest of the foreign man, who is believed to be Turkish, came after investigators spent more than a week sifting through every mobile phone call made within the vicinity of the shrine around the time of the bombing on Aug 17. 

He said officers managed to identify three Turkish phone numbers which had activated international roaming services and were in use near the blast site.
.Police apparently traced one of those phone numbers to the suspect apprehended yesterday. Around 100 police and soldiers moved in to make the arrest around 3pm at the Pool Anant apartment building in Nong Chok district, in the city’s eastern outskirts.
.A military source said the suspect held a Turkish passport by the name of Adem Karadag, 28, although the document was later found to be fake.
.A large quantity of bomb-making materials and equipment which allegedly belong to the suspect were seized from his rented room.

READ MORE: BangkokPost
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Turkish Suspect Arrested In Connection With Bangkok Bombing

A Thai police handout photo shows Turkish suspect Adem Karadag after his arrest Saturday in Bangkok in connection with a bombing August 17 at a central Bangkok shrine, which killed 20 people. A police spokesman said bomb-making materials were found at his apartment and they were similar to the device that detonated nearly two weeks ago. EPA

BANGKOK (DPA) - A foreign suspect was arrested Saturday in connection with a bombing this month at a Bangkok shrine that killed 20 people, police said.

"We arrested a 28-year-old foreign national who had in his possession bomb-making materials, including fuses, ball bearings and pipes," police spokesman Prawut Thavornsiri said.

The materials were similar to the device used in the August 17 bombing, Prawut said, adding that the suspect probably was linked to the attack but might not have been the actual bomber.

The spokesman also showed a picture during a press conference of a dozen passports emblazoned with a crescent and star found in the possession of the suspect. Local media reported that the passports are Turkish in origin.

A police source who declined to be named said police acted on a tip from the landlord who owned the apartment that the suspect was renting.

The landlord grew suspicious because the suspect did not speak Thai and rented five rooms on the same floor of the apartment complex.

Local residents told reporters that the suspect had been living in the apartment for two weeks before the bombing at the Erawan shrine in the heart of Bangkok.

Kasem Pooksuwan, the motorcycle taxi driver who said he drove the suspect away from the bombing, said pictures released of the man arrested looked similar to the bomber.

"They have the same chin and nose," Kasem said.

Television footage late Saturday showed the suspect wearing a black hood being taken away from the apartment complex as onlookers watched.

Police said the suspect will be interrogated.

Anthony Davis - a regional security analyst with Britain's IHS Jane's, which provides intelligence to militaries and governments - said at a forum this week that the Bangkok bombing did not fit the pattern of attack of local and regional groups.

Davis said the most likely group to have carried out the attack is a far-right Turkish organization known as the Grey Wolves. Davis said that the motive for such an attack could have been the repatriation of Uigher refugees to China by the Thai government.

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