Crime News
Thailand crime news, breaking reports, investigations, and law enforcement updates—stay informed on drug trafficking, cybercrime, corruption, and public safety developments. Get the latest from The Thaiger, your trusted source for crime news in Thailand.
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Bangkok cross-border surrogacy gang busted
Two Chinese nationals, a man and a woman, have been arrested after coordinated raids on illegal assisted-reproduction clinics in and around Bangkok. The pair are suspected of involvement in a major cross-border surrogacy racket. Police found at least seven Thai surrogate mothers in the raids. In a raid on a house in Lat Phrao district, police found seven pregnant Thai…
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UK prisoner tested for coronavirus after extradition is virus-free
UPDATE: Neither Mark Rumble nor another suspect deported to the UK have the Covid-19 coronavirus, The Daily Mail reports: “Two British prisoners including a ‘drug dealer’ who were sent home from Thailand do not have coronavirus, tests have confirmed.” A British drug suspect, arrested in Pattaya on November 2 before being extradited to the United Kingdom in January, has been…
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Phuket speedboat crash captains released on bail
An official of the Phuket Provincial Court confirmed this morning that both captains involved in the speedboat collision on Monday that killed two Russian children and injured more than a dozen others were released yesterday on bail of 150,000 each. Both were charged Monday with “recklessness causing death and injury.” 24 year old Atsarawut Suden and 33 year old Anusorn…
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Supreme Court upholds death for schoolgirl’s murderer
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court upheld the death sentence for Krittidech Rawengwan, a former village headman who murdered a teenage schoolgirl in the northeastern province of Kalasin. He had already been sentenced to death by two lower courts. On Dec 23, 2015, 18 year old Ruadeewan Polprasit, nicknamed “Nong Snow”, was returning home from school on a motorbike when she…
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UPDATE: Phuket speedboats crash: 2 children dead, 22 injured – VIDEO
“…both boat drivers have been charged with reckless driving causing death and injury.” Two Russian children have died and some 22 people were injured following a high-speed speedboat collision off Phuket’s east coast just before 8am this morning. The incident occurred in the channel linking Phuket’s two main east coast marinas with the Phang Nga Bay on the east side of…
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Mother beaten to death by meth crazed son
A mother in the western province of Kanchana Buri was beaten to death by her own son who was deranged under the influence of crystal methamphetmine, or “ya ice.” 54 year old Sopee Punsombat was found murdered at her home on Saturday night Police and a doctor were called to the home about half past midnight. When they entered the…
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PM visits shooting victims in hospital as the nation mourns
The soldier who shot dead at least 25 people in a bloodbath in Korat was killed in a police assault at around 9am today, ending a rampage that lasted more than 17 hours. The shooter has been identified as 32 year old Jakrapanth Thomma, an officer working for the army’s 22nd Ammunition Battalion. He stole weapons and a Humvee, (a…
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Soldiers seize 100 kilograms of crystal meth in Chiang Mai
A clash with drug runners in Chiang Mai province today resulted in the seizure of around 100 kilograms of crystal methamphetamine, commonly known as “ice,” valued at about 100 million baht. Soldiers, acting on a tip-off, laid an ambush and were waiting for the drug runners. About 10 smugglers are thought to have been wounded in the the clash, which…
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4 foreigners, 2 Thais nabbed in 3 drug busts
Four foreign nationals and two Thais have been arrested in three separate drug seizures involving heroin, ecstasy pills, cocaine, MDA, LSD and marijuana. The first bust saw two Taiwanese men arrested yesterday while trying to smuggle 15 kilograms of heroin out of Thailand in instant noodle packages and powder cans. The two, identified as Li Chun Hui and Li Chai…
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Army officer wounded in Chiang Mai firefight with drug runners
A firefight with drug smugglers in Chiang Mai province’s Chiang Dao district has left an army officer wounded and in hospital. A patrol was dispatched to a border village in Chiang Dao on Sunday, after a tip-off. The informant said drugs would be brought across the border through the Nong Kalang pass. Early yesterday a group was spotted coming from…
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Police officer murdered, mutilated
The body of a police officer was found in the northeastern province of Kalasin yesterday. He had been stabbed to death and his body severely mutilated. Police later tracked down and arrested 45 year old Amornlak Jitkoh, a Kalasin native, who had fled and hidden in a forest in Nakhon Ratchasima province. He was persuaded to surrender and return to…
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Police chase, arrest two women with 300 kilograms of compressed marijuana
Authorities in the northeastern Nong Khai province arrested two women yesterday and seized 300 kilograms of compressed marijuana. The two were captured after trying to run a police checkpoint. Police told reporters the arrests came after a tip-off that marijuana would be smuggled from neighbouring Bung Kan province, once a part of Nong Khai. It was to be transported to…
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Two Thais arrested for spreading fake coronavirus news
The Thai government says that two people have been arrested for posting fake news about the outbreak of the Wuhan Novel Coronavirus. Buddhipongse Punnakanta, the minister of the digital economy, says his ministry’s “Anti-Fake News Centre” collaborated with the police to arrest Thitima Kongthon at her Bangkok house after she posted on Facebook that a patient infected with the virus died…
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‘Blind’ beggar found driving SUV, fined
Further to a story already reported by The Thaiger, a gambler, pretending to be a blind beggar to pay his debts, is blaming his daughter’s refusal to send him money. Somporn Kueyen’s ruse was exposed after a video on social media went viral, showing him parking a Toyota Fortuner outside a temple in Nonthaburi, near Bangkok. He was wearing ragged…
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Thai police scrutinised over record number of dismissed human trafficking cases
Thailand is home to about 610,000 modern-day slaves, or about one in 113 of its population of 69 million, according to the Global Slavery Index by the Walk Free Foundation. Yet Thai prosecutors turned down nearly a fifth of human trafficking cases sent to them by police last year. This has raised concerns that police were on a drive to…
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Nonthaburi beggar exposed, drives a big SUV
Beggars and the homeless remain a major issue in Thailand, especially in larger cities and tourist areas, and many choose to help, but their kindness is sometimes exploited. Facebook user “Chaluta Joy” posted photos on Monday of a beggar, who’s been seen asking for money in different villages and markets in the central province of Nonthaburi, stepping out of a…
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“Greetings from Thailand”, escaped convict sends Belgian prison a postcard
“Greetings from Thailand”. That was the message on the postcard sent to the directors of a Belgian prison. The sender? The management of Turnhout prison believe the greeting letter was from Oualid Sekkaki, who escaped last month. Sekkaki is one of five inmates who escaped from the Flemish prison in mid-December. The letter was addressed to the three directors of the…
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More human remains found submerged in metal casket in suspect’s pond
In a story that grows grislier with each new discovery… now an old metal casket with more than 30 human bones has been retrieved from a pond at the Bangkok home of Apichai Ongwisit, dubbed “Ice Heep Lek” (metal casket killer), who has already been charged with murdering his girlfriend and disposing of her corpse on his property. Nearly 300…
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Prasitthichai speaks to the Thai media, “killings were unintentional”
In a bizarre sequence of events, Thai media were able to directly question the suspect, who has allegedly confessed, of the cold-blooded murders of three, whilst injuring four others, on January 9 at a Lop Buri gold shop. School principal Prasitthichai “Golf” Khaokaew is reported to have told police that he robbed the gold shop because he had financial problems…
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Man survives drive-by shooting and crash, credits his Buddhist amulet
A Pattaya man who was fired upon and crashed into a power pole early yesterday morning is thanking his lucky Buddha and crediting his Buddhist amulet with saving his life. 30 year old Waranyoo Kaewmala’s car was shot nine times, yet somehow miraculously escaped unharmed. Bang Lamung Police were notified of the incident at 2am rushed to the scene to…
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Lone gunman tells police he killed to “spice up his boring life”
So how did Thai police track down and arrest the suspect, who has allegedly confessed, accused of a brutal and callous robbery and shooting which resulted in the death of three with four other injured? The suspect was arrested following an intensive 14 days of forensic investigation. 38 year old school principal, Prasitthichai Khaokaew, is now in custody, suspected of…
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Arrested Lop Buri murder suspect was a provincial headmaster
The director (headmaster) of a Sing Buri school is now in police custody as a suspect in the case of the lone of being the lone gunman in a gold shop robbery at the Robinson’s Shopping Centre in Lop Buri province on January 9. Three people, including a two year old boy, were shot and killed, another four were injured…
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School headmaster arrested and charged over the Lop Buri gold shop shootings
Police have arrested a man in conjunction with the Lopburi gold shop shootings on January 9. The man is a 38 years old school headmaster from Sing Buri, the adjoining province to the west of Lop Buri in central Thailand. Police report that he has confessed to the shooting of the customers and staff, resulting in three deaths, including a two year old…
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Survey shows that Thais feel “less safe”
A recent survey by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, the Suan Dusit Poll, shows that Thais are more concerned about their safety than ever before, citing the country’s economic woes as the reason. The poll was conducted from January 15-18 on 1,365 people throughout the Kingdom of varying education levels and occupations. The survey followed a spate of serious crimes in…
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Pattaya man in coma after being shot in argument with ex-girlfriend’s father
A man remains in a coma in Pattaya after sustaining serious injuries from a gunshot during an argument with his ex-girlfriend’s father on Saturday night. Police and emergency responders arrived at the scene in Banglamung district to find 29 year old Anucha Jansrithong with a gunshot wound. 20 year old Phonthip Ployboot told police that Anucha is her ex-boyfriend and alleged…
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Citizens help arrest Burmese man breaking into Bangkok ATM
Breaking into an ATM in broad daylight might not be the best idea, as a Burmese man learned yesterday after his arrest Monday in Bangkok. Officers from the Klong Tan Police Station were called and went to the location to discover the man wearing a black tank top and jeans holding a crowbar, which he was using to tear apart…
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Police question suspect in Lop Buri gold shop shootings
Police in the northeastern province of Nong Khai are confident they’ve identified a suspect in the January 9 gold shop robbery and shooting in the central Lop Buri province that killed three people, including a two-year boy, and injured four others. The man was summoned for questioning. National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda says that the man, whose identity is currently…
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Suspect questioned over the fatal gold heist at Aurora Gold Shop in Lop Buri
A suspect has been summoned for questioning in Thailand’s north-eastern province of Nong Khai, just south of the Laos border. It’s believed he may be the man who shot and killed three people, and injured four others during a gold shop heist on January 9 in Lop Buri province. The man, whose identity has not been disclosed, matches the suspect’s…
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Thai teacher caning a student in Ayutthaya reports to police – UPDATE
A teacher, now identified as teaching in Ayutthaya, north of Bangkok at the Chiang Rak Noi School, met with the girl’s mother and police last night. Teacher Som Ruseeprasit was caught on video flogging a young female student whilst screaming appalling Thai swear words at the student. The girl was struck at least three times in the video although he admitted…
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2 more alleged call centre scam suspects arrested in Japan
Two men arrested in Japan yesterday stand accused of operating a large-scale call centre scam based in Thailand, bringing the total number of arrests in the case to 28. Japanese police believe 36 year old Kengo Yasutake and 34 year old Shimpei Hirata operated a luxury home in Pattaya, where a team of Japanese men would call people across Japan…
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