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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    Why long-term expats in Thailand say insurance is worth every baht

    Thailand’s warm weather, low cost of living, and good healthcare attract many long-term expats, including retirees and remote workers. Life here feels easy and affordable, but medical costs can be high if something goes wrong. Private hospitals are popular because...

  • New Zealand expat arrested in Phuket over weapons, including explosives | Thaiger

    New Zealand expat arrested in Phuket over weapons, including explosives

    A New Zealand expat has been arrested in Phuket for possessing several weapons, including 11 explosives. The man, 63 year old Gareth Alan Davies, was also found to have 19 guns and ammunition in his house in the Kathu district. Region 8 Police Commander Surapong Thanomjit said that Davies had claimed that the weapons were just collectables. But Commander Surapong…

  • Drunk police doctor who crashed Porsche killing 2 in Thailand avoids prison for now | Thaiger

    Drunk police doctor who crashed Porsche killing 2 in Thailand avoids prison for now

    Today, Thon Buri Provincial Court sentenced a police doctor to three years imprisonment and a fine of 101,000 baht for speeding and drink-driving in his Porsche, causing a crash that killed two people and seriously injured one more person in Bangkok back in August 2021. However, although the defendant pleaded guilty on all counts, the court suspended his punishment for…

  • Egyptian men who allegedly stole mobile phones from Pattaya guest house arrested | Thaiger

    Egyptian men who allegedly stole mobile phones from Pattaya guest house arrested

    UPDATE Three men who allegedly worked together to steal two mobile phones from a Pattaya guest house have been arrested. CCTV footage showed the second and third suspects walking down Pattaya Second Road the night before. The first and second suspects were also seen heading down Pattaya Second Road to Pattaya Central Road after they left the guest house. The…

  • Police find meth pills, gun, bullets, knife, and axe in man’s car in Patong | Thaiger

    Police find meth pills, gun, bullets, knife, and axe in man’s car in Patong

    Police yesterday found nine meth pills, a gun, 10 bullets, a knife, and an axe in a man’s car in Patong. Patong Police had been alerted by residents that there was a minivan parked in front of a hotel for a long time and that the driver looked suspicious. The police then searched the minivan and found the items. They arrested…

  • Middle Eastern tourists steal phones from Pattaya hotel | Thaiger

    Middle Eastern tourists steal phones from Pattaya hotel

    Pattaya Police are on the lookout for two Middle Eastern men who robbed two mobile phones yesterday from a hotel at Soi Pattaya Sai Song. A 43 year old member of the hotel staff, Siriwan Saeng-Arun, told police that the two Middle Eastern tourists requested to see a room before booking on Saturday, November 5. Siriwan showed the alleged tourists a…

  • Immigration police show off arrests of foreign criminals in Thailand | Thaiger

    Immigration police show off arrests of foreign criminals in Thailand

    Officers from Thailand’s Immigration Bureau held a press conference on Friday to reveal the results of five ‘important’ recent criminal cases in the kingdom involving foreign perpetrators. Immigration police are hunting down foreign criminals in Thailand ahead of the APEC meeting in Bangkok later this month. Police recently announced a crackdown on foreign criminals to ensure the safety and security…

  • No fury like a ladyboy scorned – toyboy pulls gun | Thaiger

    No fury like a ladyboy scorned – toyboy pulls gun

    Fury gripped a middle-aged ladyboy in Phatthalung when she caught up with her toyboy lover at a hotel with a woman until he pulled his gun on her. On November 1, Phatthalung police arrested 18 year old Apichart Thongdeepeng on suspicion of threatening to shoot Amnuay Sukkaew, 28 years his senior. The pair say they have been together a year.…

  • Crime analytics – a game-changer for trafficking of illegal firearms | Thaiger

    Crime analytics – a game-changer for trafficking of illegal firearms

    California recently passed a new law that permits private persons to file a civil action against anybody who manufactures, distributes, transports or imports assault weapons or ghost guns, to reduce gun violence in the aftermath of recent mass shootings throughout the country. Despite several such laws being passed worldwide, the illicit trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW) continues…

  • Police remove illegal food and drink venues at Phuket beach | Thaiger

    Police remove illegal food and drink venues at Phuket beach

    Police have on Wednesday removed illegal food and drink venues from a beach in Phuket‘s Thalang district. The police found three venues on Layan Beach that were providing food and drinks, as well as beach chairs, sunbeds, and umbrellas. Two people who said they were owners of two of the outlets were arrested for seeling alcohol without permission, and violating…

  • Delivery driver finds huge stash of Thai, Laos and Japanese banknotes under a tree | Thaiger

    Delivery driver finds huge stash of Thai, Laos and Japanese banknotes under a tree

    A delivery driver stumbled across a stash of Thai, Japanese, and Laos banknotes scattered beneath a tree in Udon Thani city centre, northeast Thailand, this morning. The cash – amounting to over 500,000 baht – is suspected to be fake. The driver, 43 year old Somsak Sirikhan, was sitting waiting for a job with five or six other rides. He…

  • Fight breaks out on island off Pattaya | Thaiger

    Fight breaks out on island off Pattaya

    A fight broke out in front of a resort on an island off Pattaya on Wednesday night between two groups of people. Security footage captured 6-8 people on motorbikes passing by the resort on Koh Larn and glancing back at another group that was marching toward them on foot. After the group on motorbikes exited the footage, the group was…

  • 81-year-old Japanese man arrested for murder after pushing wife’s wheelchair into sea | Thaiger

    81-year-old Japanese man arrested for murder after pushing wife’s wheelchair into sea

    Police arrested an 81-year-old Japanese man after he allegedly pushed his wheelchair-bound wife into the sea. The man, Hiroshi Fujiwara, was arrested in the Oiso, Kanagawa Prefecture in Japan with police saying he then admitted to killing his 79-year-old wife. Fujiwara said he was worn out from looking after her as she had been in a wheelchair for the past…

  • Bangkok police arrest 15 scammers, seize US$1 million | Thaiger

    Bangkok police arrest 15 scammers, seize US$1 million

    Bangkok police arrested 15 suspected scammers involved in a barrage of illegal businesses, seizing assets worth more than over 42 million baht (US$1.1 million) yesterday. The arrests follow a series of disturbing incidents, including a raid on a nightclub disguised as a car wash in the Yannawa district, and the death of a tourist after a night out at a…

  • Activist charged with assault and child exploitation | Thaiger

    Activist charged with assault and child exploitation

    Secretary-general of the Amphawa district Child Protection Foundation in Samut Sakhon Montree Sinthawichai, his wife and son, met police investigators at Amphawa district police station today to hear charges against them. Montree, better known as Khru Yun, is accused of assaulting children and using child labour. Previously, activists from the Zendai Foundation took children under Montree’s care to file a…

  • Crazed drug addict buries unconscious victim alive | Thaiger

    Crazed drug addict buries unconscious victim alive

    A crazed drug addict in the Isaan province of Udon Thani faces up to 20 years in prison after he attempted to murder an unconscious man by burying him alive. A police report revealed that Teerawat Suwanno attacked 55 year old Sopa (surname reserved) with a gardening hoe, knocking him unconscious, before attacking his unnamed friend who managed to escape.…

  • Prisoner fakes his own death to escape cell in Pattaya, Thailand | Thaiger

    Prisoner fakes his own death to escape cell in Pattaya, Thailand

    An alleged thief faked his death yesterday in an attempt to escape his cell in Pattaya, Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand. However, the “dead” prisoner shot up like a bolt when suspecting rescue workers placed ammonia under his nose. Yesterday, officers from Pattaya City Police Station arrested and detained 53 year old Sayan [surname withheld] under suspicion of stealing 50,000…

  • Knife-wielding meth addict circles daycare centre in northeast Thailand | Thaiger

    Knife-wielding meth addict circles daycare centre in northeast Thailand

    A man in a suspected meth-induced psychotic episode took a knife and circled a daycare centre in Non Suwan subdistrict, Buriram province, northeast Thailand yesterday morning. At around 9am, 30 year old Gongphon “Ming” Sehlah arrived at Non Suwan Child Development Centre armed with a knife and began walking around the centre. According to police, Ming entered a methamphetamine-induced psychotic…

  • No gambling dens reported in Bangkok says police chief | Thaiger

    No gambling dens reported in Bangkok says police chief

    Thailand’s new national police chief says he hasn’t received any reports of gambling dens in Bangkok since he was appointed as chief on October 1. This was in response to a group of gamblers who claimed that over 100 illegal gambling dens operate throughout the capital city. The group of gamblers claim that they were abducted and physically abused at a…

  • China to join Thailand in cracking down on transnational crimes | Thaiger

    China to join Thailand in cracking down on transnational crimes

    China has pledged to assist Thailand in cracking down on transnational crimes, according to a Facebook post by the Chinese Embassy in Bangkok. The embassy acknowledged several criminal cases that were subject to Thai police investigations. It says the Chinese government places importance on law enforcement and the suppression of illegal narcotics, indecent acts, and gambling. Now, the embassy says…

  • Intruder who attacked US House Speaker’s husband says it was a suicide misison | Thaiger

    Intruder who attacked US House Speaker’s husband says it was a suicide misison

    The intruder who broke into US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s home and severely injured her husband, says it was a suicide mission. David DePape hit Paul Pelosi in the head with a hammer, leaving him unconscious in a pool of blood leaving him to be hospitalised with a skull fracture. DePape was captured and arrested, telling police that he was…

  • Police raid 4 Phuket venues for underage drinking | Thaiger

    Police raid 4 Phuket venues for underage drinking

    Raids in Phuket last night saw police targeting businesses accused of selling alcohol to minors. Police say they received numerous complaints that some venues in the area were selling alcohol to children. The legal age for drinking in Thailand is 20 years old. Last night officials from many local and provincial police forces and government departments descended on a number…

  • Snarky Phuket man claims stealing ex-girlfriend’s car was just a joke | Thaiger

    Snarky Phuket man claims stealing ex-girlfriend’s car was just a joke

    A snarky Phuket man claims that he only stole his ex-girlfriend’s car as a joke. The 54 year old Somsak, stole the car on October 30 from his former girlfriend’s house in a housing estate in the Wichit sub-district of the main city district. Sopawan said she parked the sedan near her house before finding out in the morning that…

  • Vandalised tourist service centre gets makeover in Pattaya | Thaiger

    Vandalised tourist service centre gets makeover in Pattaya

    An abandoned vandalised tourist service centre in Pattaya has been cleaned up after several crimes in the area. Pattaya Police, along with City Councilman Nikom Sangkaew, worked together to change the light bulbs and clean up the police box opposite the Royal Garden Plaza on Beach Road. The box has barely offered any services since 2019. Photos by Pattaya Mail…

  • Naked Brit in Koh Samui wants everyone to “meet with God” | Thaiger

    Naked Brit in Koh Samui wants everyone to “meet with God”

    A naked British tourist in Koh Samui reportedly has some strange goals for the world. Koh Samui police found the man in the sea at Baan Mae Nam Beach over the Halloween weekend. Boat operators struggled to help get the man out of the water, and the man even grabbed one operator, shoved him under the water and tried to…

  • Pattaya captors of Chinese man may have had illegal student visas, says “Big Joke” | Thaiger

    Pattaya captors of Chinese man may have had illegal student visas, says “Big Joke”

    UPDATE More details are emerging on the kidnapping of a Chinese man in Pattaya in the early hours of Sunday morning. The captors cut off one of the man’s pinky fingers. The man’s captors may be Chinese nationals in Thailand on illegal student visas, according to the Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn. An investigation…

  • VIDEO: Pit bull attacks in Pattaya | Thaiger

    VIDEO: Pit bull attacks in Pattaya

    CCTV footage captured the moment a man’s pet pit bull launched and bit a woman inside a condo building in Pattaya, Chon Buri province, eastern Thailand on Saturday. The pit bull and its owner were about to take the lift when the dog, seemingly out of nowhere, launched at a woman walking past and bit her thigh, causing her an…

  • Dishonest taxi driver keeps 70,000 baht found in his cab | Thaiger

    Dishonest taxi driver keeps 70,000 baht found in his cab

    A passenger filed a complaint to the police against an alleged dishonest taxi driver in Samut Prakarn province near Bangkok after he refused to return the 70,000 baht he found in the cab back to its owner. The taxi driver asked his friend to pretend the cash was hers and kept the money for himself. The passenger, 43 year old…

  • Norwegian man arrested for stealing taxi from Krabi Airport in southern Thailand | Thaiger

    Norwegian man arrested for stealing taxi from Krabi Airport in southern Thailand

    Thai police did a double take yesterday afternoon when they saw a Norwegian man driving a taxi out of Krabi International Airport in southern Thailand. The thief made the police chase easy by stopping at a convenience store to buy a drink, where he was arrested and detained. At 3.30pm, officers from Huai Yot Police Station in Trang province received…

  • Police seize 6 safes from illegal Chinese karaoke venue | Thaiger

    Police seize 6 safes from illegal Chinese karaoke venue

    UPDATE Officers seized six safes from the illegal Jin Ling Chinese karaoke venue in the Sathorn area of Bangkok as the investigation continues. One of the safes was packed with a mixed drug called Happy Water, which is made by dissolving ecstasy, methamphetamine, diazepam, caffeine, and tramadol – in hot water or mixing them with sweetened drinks. Another one that was opened…

  • A scammer who posed as police chief arrested in central Thailand | Thaiger

    A scammer who posed as police chief arrested in central Thailand

    A scammer who posed as a police chief was arrested in Thailand’s central Ayutthaya province on Friday. A team of officers from the Police Cyber Taskforce (PCT) arrested the man, 32 year old Chonwicha Pansamut, in the Wang Noi district, according to the Metropolitan Police Bureau (MPB). Authorities have evidence that Chonwicha claimed to be the Chiang Rai city district…