Crime

Police Arrest 3 Chinese Gangsters for Kidnapping and Extortion

Police report two men and a woman from China have been arrested on charges that they kidnapped a fellow Chinese woman and forced her to pay them about 3.2 million baht. in ester Thailand’s Sa Kaeo province.

Police said that the three people were taken into custody on Saturday at a hotel in Sa Kaeo’s Aranyaprathet district. They were then taken to the Thong Lor police station in Bangkok to be questioned.

A 32-year-old Chinese woman who was getting her bachelor’s degree, Menglu Weng, filed a complaint with the Thong Lor police on Friday. The police didn’t say who she was.

Ms. Menglu said that on Thursday night, March 16, she was going to meet a Chinese woman about her age whom she had just met recently to eat at a restaurant in the Ekamai area. After the meal, the woman showed her to a black Toyota Alphard in the parking lot. There, a Chinese man with a knife forced her into the car, which was driven by another Chinese man. The person she had dinner with also got into the van.

After the car left, the man with the knife made her use her cell phone to send 250,000 yuan and 8,000 USDT (a stable cryptocurrency called Tether) to an account.

Ms. Menglu, the other woman, and the two men spent the night in the van. That night, one of the men made her call her boyfriend in China and tell him to send another 50,000 USDT to her imToken app. After that, the money was moved to the same account.

According to police the two Chinese men let the two women go on Friday morning in the Min Buri neighbourhood of Bangkok. They forced the victim to give them cash and cryptocurrency worth a total of about 3.2 million baht.

Ms. Menglu said she went to her condo in the Asoke area on her own, away from the other woman, before filing a complaint with the Thong Lor police.

Police from Thong Lor went to the restaurant in the Ekamai neighbourhood. The two Chinese women got into a Toyota Alphard, which was seen on security camera footage. From looking at the video, the police thought that the other woman was being used as bait in the plan to get money.

Later, the police found out that the Toyota Alphard had been rented from a car rental shop for 5,000 baht per day from March 15 to 17. On March 17, the car was taken back to the shop.

The police thought that the two Chinese men and the other Chinese woman were all part of the same gang. They looked into the matter.

The investigation showed that the two Chinese men and the woman stayed at a hotel in Pattaya (on Pattaya South road in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district) before going to Sa Kaeo province, where they stayed at the Hitz Hotel in Aranyaprathet district.

On Sunday morning, the three were arrested at the hotel and taken to Bangkok’s Thong Lor police station for more questioning. The police didn’t tell anyone who the three suspects were.

Police Arrest Fake Doctors

In other police news, two men were arrested on Saturday after police raided two clinics in Bangkok and Pathum Thani. They were working as doctors without licenses, which is against the law.

The head of the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD), Pol Maj Gen Anan Nanasombat, said that the first clinic was in the Kheha Romklao housing estate on Rat Pattana road in the Lat Krabang district of Bangkok.

It was found that the clinic had been running without a permit. Rathaphum Osotbundhit, 51, was found checking up on patients as a doctor, but he didn’t have a license to do so.

Mr. Rathaphum is said to have admitted that he worked at a hospital for about 13 years and got some medical experience before going overseas to study medicine but not finishing.

When he went back to Thailand, he opened a clinic without a permit and started practising medicine without a license about three months ago.

Mr. Rathaphum was accused of not having a permit to open a clinic and of practising medicine without a license. The second clinic was in Khlong Luang district, Pathum Thani province, at Soi Thai Thanee 6 in the Nava Nakorn Industrial Estate.

Kritsaran Naksang, who was 36 years old, was working as a doctor at the clinic and was looking at patients. With a permit, the clinic was found to be running well.

But Mr. Kritsaran admitted that he did not have a license to practice. He said he got his medical degree from a school in another country and was working as an intern at a state hospital. He worked at the clinic while he was waiting to take a test to get his license.

He was taken into custody and accused of being a doctor without a license.

Fake Teacher Scams Parents

Meanwhile, the parents and guardians of more than 30 students in Chaiyaphum province are looking for justice after a crook posing as an extracurricular teacher scammed them out of money.

Somboon Inchuwong, the chief of Sa Baeng village in tambon Huai Bong, led 21 parents and guardians to file a complaint against Anek Saklo, 46, who posed as an instructor from Rajabhat Chaiyaphum University and offered extracurricular classes for 2,500 baht per student.

The accused is said to have made more than 75,000 baht by tricking the families of students from pre-school to grade 9 into paying for Thai, math, English, and computer classes on weekends.

Mr. Anek started the classes in December of last year. He got kids of different ages together at a community pavilion and gave them simple worksheets. Students filled out the worksheets in two-hour sessions over the course of three weekends. This only added up to 12 hours of instruction out of the 32 hours that were promised. He stopped being reachable before February, when the job was supposed to be done.

The village headman did some research and found that Mr. Anek, who didn’t have a degree or teaching license, had pulled a similar scam in other villages, usually fooling about 20 students before moving on to the next one. People thought that his trick made him more than 175,000 baht.

Later, police found him at a house in Phitsanulok province and put him in jail on Thursday.

Even though Mr. Anek admitted to lying, police said he told them he didn’t have the money to pay back his victims. Parents who went to find the suspect have asked the police to punish him to the fullest extent of the law if he can’t pay them back.

Mr. Anek is being held in jail while more charges are brought against him.

Crime

Police Officer Being Ordained at Temple Arrested for Running Scam Call Center

Police in Northern Thailand have arrested a fellow officer as he was being ordained at a temple in Ngao district of neighbouring Lampang province.

Pol Lt Col Bandit Khonkan chief inspector from the Hang Dong police station was disrobed and taken to the Chang Puak station in Chiang Mai. He was arrested on charges of running a call centre scam gang in Chiang Mai Province.

According to Thai Media Chiang Mai Provincial Police Region 5 obtained an arrest warrant for Pol Lt Col Bandit on Friday from the Chiang Mai Provincial Court for procuring illegal telecom equipment, setting up a station and using public airwaves to run a telecommunications business without permission.

Pol Lt Col Bandit reportedly told investigators that he was not the ringleader and was only a member of the gang with Chinese partners.

His arrest followed the apprehension of his 26-year-old daughter, Miss Wanuchapond, 26, and three others during raids at three housing projects in Chiang Mai on Friday, Pol Maj Gen Weerachon Boontawee, deputy chief of Provincial Police Region 5 told Thai media.

During the raids police police discovered around 12 GSM gateways, or SIM boxes, which are devices used for converting cellular networks into mobile phone numbers used domestically.

The chief inspectors daughter Miss Wanuchapond told the arresting officers that she was paid 8,000 baht a month at each of the three locations for renting thr rooms and monitoring devices.

She claimed she had no idea what the devices were and accepted the job because the pay was attractive.

Police investigators working with telecom regulators used a special tracking device to monitor the gang’s communications and learned that its base was in Myanmar opposite Mae Sai district of Chiang Rai.

The call center gang used the GSM gateways to make calls over the internet to scam people in Thailand out of million of baht.

The GSM gateways transmitting signals via SIM boxes to convert them into domestic phone numbers, duping victims into thinking they were being called from Thai government agencies.

Pol Maj Gen Weerachon said that each SIM box held 32 SIM cards, with a capacity of up to 300,000 calls a month. The seized devices had made fraudulent calls over 3.6 million times.

He said the their investigation is ongoing and they are working to track down the remaining conspirators, including Chinese and other Thai suspects.

Authorities are still deciding whether Pol Lt Col Bandit will be dismissed from the force, he said, adding that so far, no other officers are known to have been involved.

Police in Chiang Rai Launch Crackdown on Cyber Criminals in Golden Triangle

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin has authorized the establishment of an emergency cyber center operated by the Royal Thai Police to combat transnational crimes committed by call center gangs along the Thai border in Chiang Rai province.

On July 19, Prime Minister Settha Thavisin directed the Center to combat information technology crimes. The Royal Thai Police (Royal Thai Police) will crack down on call center gangs in Myanmar, Laos, and along the border.

His directive comes as call center gangs ratchet up their scams to defraud people of their money, causing concern among Thais and jeopardizing the country’s economic and social stability.

Related Police News:

Machete Wielding Man Shot an Killed by Police in Chiang Rai

https://www.chiangraitimes.com/chiangrai-news/machete-wielding-man-shot-an-killed-by-police-in-chiang-rai/

Crime

Thai Immigration Police Arrest Colombian Tourists Over Home Invasions

Immigration police officers have arrested four Colombian nationals in connection with a series of home burglaries at luxury housing complexes in the Bangkok metropolitan area and Chiang Buri Province.

Pol Maj Gen Panthana Nuchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, told a press briefing that three of the suspects were apprehended in Nonthaburi Province and the fourth in South Pattaya, Chon Buri Province.

According to the Bangkok Post, the Colombians were charged with stealing conspiracy and seized around 3 million baht (US$82,500.00).

According to Pol Maj Gen Panthana, the criminals rode motorcycles through housing estates, scoping out the properties and waiting for the owners to depart before committing their crimes.

He stated that all four of the accused denied any involvement in the home break-ins, but the arresting squad discovered evidence that implicated them.

Police called to home invasion

Meanwhile, police were dispatched to a luxury housing development in Tambon Nong Prue, Chonburi Province, after a Chinese man was attacked during a house invasion.

When they arrived, they discovered the house owner, Mr. Qian Peng Yi, visibly scared and with marks from being tied up with a cable. He informed police that three Chinese males broke into his home at 9 p.m., one of whom brandished a gun at him and directed him to his bedroom.

They bound his hands and feet, gagged him with fabric, taped his head, and forced him into the bed. The intruders then attempted to compel him into transferring 10 million baht in cryptocurrencies to them, endangering the life of his 33-year-old cousin who was in a second-floor bedroom.

While they scoured the house in search of riches, Mr. Peng Yi managed to flee and hide; he subsequently observed them leave with his cousin. Officials investigated the property and analyzed security camera footage from the incident and surrounding areas.

Around 9 p.m., a 30-year-old van driver came at the Bang Lamung police station after being contacted by an agency to carry Chinese customers from Pattaya to Suvarnabhumi Airport.

The driver informed authorities that he was supposed to pick them up at a motel about a kilometer from the Chinese businessman’s home. He then drove them to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi airport, arriving at 1 a.m. and receiving 1,800 baht.

The driver took a snapshot of the group smoking at the airport gate and identified one of them as the victim’s cousin. Police suspected coordination between her and the three suspects in her cousin’s heist, who all departed Thailand on the same aircraft.

Other Bangkok News:

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Police in Bangkok Discover Six Vietnamese Tourists Dead in 5 Star Hotel

Crime

Son of Thailand’s Leading Legal Scholar on Corruption Arrested for Running Online Gambling Network

The son of a former senator and leading economist and expert on corruption and gambling in Thailand has been arrested for on charges of running an online gambling network and its payment system.

Police from Thailand’s Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD) have confiscated assets worth more than (US$ 11.1 million) 400 million baht.

Narote Piriyarangsan, 33, was arrested following crackdowns in three sites around the city, according to Pol Maj Gen Athip Pongsiwapai, commander of the police Technology Crime Suppression Division (TCSD).

Mr Narote’s father, Sangsit Piriyarangsan, is an economist who has written articles and books about corruption and gambling. He was one of the appointed senators that were investigating the government’s intention to legalize casino gaming before their terms expired.

Police also detained 39-year-old Narayut Narakaew, the owner of the gambling website 69pgslot.com. The Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for the couple for operating an internet gambling service and money laundering.

According to the Bangkok Post, police seized two desktop computers, one laptop computer, 14 mobile phones, 21 bank passbooks, 53 ATM cards, and four high-end cars — a Ferrari 926 GTS, an Aston Martin, a Lexus, and a Subaru — totaling more than 400 million baht.

Police launched the inquiry after discovering the online gambling site, which accepted funds via an automatic deposit-withdrawal system through bank accounts and deposits in the AskMePay system. Players scanned the VPay QR code as well as the QR codes for Heng Online 888 or Heng Pay Company.

Police also discovered that payments received via QR code scans were transferred to the account of Heng Pay Co and then to the gambling website’s mule accounts using AskMePay, which did not use banks’ face recognition scanning. An inquiry indicated a monthly turnover of approximately 5 billion baht.

According to investigators, the website has been up and running for around four years, with the payment mechanism in use for roughly eight months.

According to Pol Maj Gen Athip, Mr Narote owns the gaming website’s payment systems and is the director of Heng Pay Co. After gathering evidence, authorities requested arrest warrants for 14 people.

Thailand does not allow almost any kind of gaming. Even though the law doesn’t say anything specific about online gaming, it is still considered gambling. The country has pretty strict rules about gambling. Thai punters can bet on the national lottery and horse races, but they can’t bet on any other types of games.

But it’s not a secret that there is a huge illegal gaming business in Thailand, even though it’s illegal.

The illegal casinos, online betting shops, underground lotteries, and pop-up bookies that take bets on everything from cockfights to Muay Thai make a shadow economy that is worth billions of dollars every year.