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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    Do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?

    Thailand’s healthcare system is well-regarded across Southeast Asia, with options ranging from public hospitals to world-class private facilities. But when it comes to foreign residents or tourists, healthcare access isn’t as straightforward. So, do foreigners get free healthcare in Thailand?...

  • Anti-drug in-laws gunned down in their home

    Anti-drug in-laws gunned down in their home

    A man has been arrested after shooting his father-in-law and a brother-in-law dead at their house in Bangkok’s Bang Kae district Saturday morning. Police say the man was preparing to kill his mother-in-law when they arrived on the scene. The deadly shootout took place inside a two-storey house at Ban Suk Samran housing estate in the Lak Song area, according…

  • Jealous man shot his wife’s lover in the chest in Bangkok

    Jealous man shot his wife’s lover in the chest in Bangkok

    A love triangle resulted in murder charges after a man shot his wife’s lover multiple times in the street. The trio had met up to discuss the sticky situation when tempers flared and the husband pulled out a gun on the street in the Bangkok district of Lat Krabang. CCTV footage captured images of the shooting. The shooter was identified only…

  • Three arrested in India in occult human sacrifice case

    Three arrested in India in occult human sacrifice case

    In the southern Indian state of Kerala, police arrested three people accused of murdering two women allegedly as an occult human sacrifice. Authorities say that the people taken into custody confessed to the crime. A 60 year old traditional healer and masseur and his 52 year old wife were believed to have worked with an occult practitioner to improve their…

  • Florida school shooter gets life in prison, avoids death penalty

    Florida school shooter gets life in prison, avoids death penalty

    A shooter who killed 17 people at his former high school in the state of Florida in the US, has avoided the death penalty for his crimes. The US jury decided that Nikolas Cruz should spend the rest of his life in prison without the possibility of parole. According to the Straits Times, the jury deliberated for a full day…

  • Drunk man holds baby hostage at knifepoint to get his wife back

    Drunk man holds baby hostage at knifepoint to get his wife back

    Police in Samut Prakan were in an intense standoff with a drunken father who took his eight month old baby hostage. The man had been estranged from his wife who left to travel to the provinces. After apparently visiting his own parents, he grabbed a kitchen knife and his infant child in the middle of the night yesterday. North Samrong…

  • 3 men arrested for drugs, selling fake cocaine

    3 men arrested for drugs, selling fake cocaine

    As officials continue to crack down on drugs and guns after the daycare centre massacre, three entertainment workers in Patong were arrested for possession of meth. They had real drugs on them when police stopped them, but are accused of selling fake cocaine to tourists. The three men, aged 25, 48, and 49 from Pattani and Narathiwat provinces were arrested…

  • Firearms and drug laws to be strictly enforced after daycare centre massacre

    Firearms and drug laws to be strictly enforced after daycare centre massacre

    After the recent mass shooting of a daycare centre in Nong Bua Lamphu province, Thailand’s PM says laws on guns and listed narcotics will be strictly enforced. The move comes as the country grapples with the horrific massacre, which saw 36 people (including 24 children) die, with many calling for gun control. Prayut Chan-o-cha announced during a cabinet meeting which included…

  • Mother of the daycare massacre killer says sorry

    Mother of the daycare massacre killer says sorry

    Thailand’s Department of Health released a video of the mother of the daycare centre massacre killer issuing a heartfelt apology for the tragedy while more details emerge about the lack of urgency by the police to the killing spree. The mother of the former police officer who murdered 37 people, including 24 children, in Nong Bua Lamphu province, northeast Thailand, delivered her…

  • Men with 1 meth pill arrested in Phuket’s zero-tolerance policy

    Men with 1 meth pill arrested in Phuket’s zero-tolerance policy

    Authorities have been cracking down on drugs and guns since the daycare centre massacre, enacting new restrictions and ramping up enforcement. Police in Phuket are now following a zero-tolerance policy and last night arrested three men for carrying as little as one meth pill. The Thalang Police Chief in Phuket ordered the new zero-tolerance programme and instructed the police force…

  • Pattaya police find gun and drugs at nightclub, 33 arrested

    Pattaya police find gun and drugs at nightclub, 33 arrested

    Pattaya Police found a gun and illegal drugs in a nightclub they raided in the early hours of this morning. Police said they seized three illegal objects including two small bags of undisclosed illegal substances, electronic cigarettes, and a pistol with six bullets. The nightclub is called “DIRTY” and it is located on Soi Ko Phai in Nong Prue. The bags…

  • Antisocial neighbour jailed for smashing up car

    Antisocial neighbour jailed for smashing up car

    A reign of terror from an antisocial neighbour takes a short break after he was jailed for smashing the windscreen of a car owner with a gun. The pest’s unruly behaviour has caused chaos for years in a village in the Bang Bua Thong area of Nonthaburi province near Bangkok The neighbourhood nuisance, 38-year-old Jeerasak Khaosook, held his wife and child…

  • Drug test results announced for Phuket’s defense volunteers

    Drug test results announced for Phuket’s defense volunteers

    There’s been a drug testing campaign for defense volunteers in Phuket this week. The police chief of Phuket’s main city district led the campaign. The chief, Suwit Suriyawong, said that all the defense volunteers tested negative for drugs. He told The Phuket Express… “The campaign is to ensure that these defense volunteers who are working with us are not involved…

  • US imposes more sanctions on Taliban over its treatment of women

    US imposes more sanctions on Taliban over its treatment of women

    The US handed down more sanctions on the Taliban as punishment for its treatment of women and girls in Afghanistan. The announcement was made on the UN’s International Day of the Girl Child yesterday. According to The Straits Times, a new visa restriction policy for current or former members of the Taliban and others involved in repressing women’s rights through…

  • No peace for Maddie as ‘prime suspect’ charged with historical sex offences

    No peace for Maddie as ‘prime suspect’ charged with historical sex offences

    The latest of so many prime suspects in the disappearance of Madeleine McCann has been charged in Germany with unrelated sex offences. Convicted sex offender 45 year old Christian Brueckner is accused of five offences in Portugal between 2000 and 2017. The investigation into Madeleine’s disappearance is ongoing. Brueckner was identified as a suspect in the case in June 2020…

  • Manager of famous Thai rapper ‘Illslick’ given 2 years in prison over sex scandal

    Manager of famous Thai rapper ‘Illslick’ given 2 years in prison over sex scandal

    Yesterday, the court sentenced ‘Lily,’ the manager of famous Thai rapper ‘Illslick’, to two years in prison with no parole for ‘luring’ an 18 year old to have sex with the rapper in Khon Kaen in northeast Thailand in February last year. Khon Kaen Provincial Court found Lily [surname withheld] guilty of “satisfying the lust of others by luring, supplying, leading…

  • Off-duty officer reportedly carried gun and “acted eratically” in Phuket

    Off-duty officer reportedly carried gun and “acted eratically” in Phuket

    An off-duty police officer was reportedly spotted walking around carrying a gun and “acting erratically” in a Phuket housing estate, according to residents. The residents told police they saw the Phang Nga Police officer, 27 year old Corporal Korn, at the estate in Thalang district on Monday morning. Thalang Police Chief Colonel Pisit Chuenpet said police were first alerted about…

  • Three separate incidents involving men with or on drugs reported in Phuket

    Three separate incidents involving men with or on drugs reported in Phuket

    Three separate incidents involving men with or on drugs have been reported in Phuket in the past few days. The first incident occurred in the main city district over the weekend, the second incident happened in the Thalang district early yesterday morning, and the third incident occurred in Kathu yesterday morning. Phuket City District A man who reportedly tried to…

  • Loan shark shoots debtor 8 times in the head in southern Thailand

    Loan shark shoots debtor 8 times in the head in southern Thailand

    A loan shark chose revenge over repayments on Sunday when he shot a debtor eight times in the head outside a tea shop in Songkhla province in southern Thailand. At 8pm, officers at Khuan Meed Police Station received a call that someone had been shot dead in the Chana district. Police found the body of 42 year old Chusit [surname…

  • Janitor finds young man’s corpse on fire behind school in NE Thailand

    Janitor finds young man’s corpse on fire behind school in NE Thailand

    Police have launched a murder investigation after the body of a 23 year old man was found at a school last night in Buriram province in northeast Thailand. His body was badly burned and the smell of oil pervaded the crime scene. At 8.30pm yesterday, a janitor started his shift at Ban Salangthon school when he noticed a “burning stench.”…

  • PM Prayut declares war on drugs to prevent mass shootings in Thailand

    PM Prayut declares war on drugs to prevent mass shootings in Thailand

    Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha declared a war on drugs and a clampdown on gun control laws after a massacre at a daycare centre in northeast Thailand sparked urgent calls for change on Thursday. A former police sergeant facing trial for drug charges murdered 37 people – including 24 children under six years old – at a daycare centre in…

  • Thai man arrested for posing as police officer

    Thai man arrested for posing as police officer

    A Thai man was arrested on Friday after he tried to fulfil his dream job – impersonating a police officer. The 30 year old man, Kamfon Kunlachart, in full police uniform, reported himself ready for work to the superintendent at a police station in the Din Daeng district of Bangkok at 9.30am on Friday, October 7. Kamfon met with the…

  • Intoxicated Phuket man carries chicken around all night long

    Intoxicated Phuket man carries chicken around all night long

    An intoxicated Phuket man had a wild night carrying around something rather… random. The man was caught on Saturday morning after walking around carrying knives and a chicken all night long on Coconut Island off the main city district. Police caught the man, 37 year old Jaran, who had reportedly scared residents. Jaran had two knives, a chicken, and an…

  • Thai man robbed by cannabis dealer at knife-point in Pattaya

    Thai man robbed by cannabis dealer at knife-point in Pattaya

    A Thai man filed a complaint with police after he was allegedly forced to strip naked as he was being robbed at knife-point by a cannabis dealer in Pattaya. The suspect was arrested but denied all allegations, saying they were friends and he would never rob a friend. Anukun Sichan filed the complaint at Mueng Pattaya Police Station yesterday at 8pm.…

  • Indian tourist in Pattaya reportedly missing over US,000

    Indian tourist in Pattaya reportedly missing over US$6,000

    An Indian tourist in Pattaya is reportedly missing over US$6,000 after staying at a hotel in the city for just two days, The Pattaya News reported yesterday. The man, 45 year old Vivek Singhal, told Pattaya officials that he had arrived at his hotel on October 5. Two days later he realised that the US$6,600 he had left in the…

  • Curbing meth in Bangkok a focus after massacre

    Curbing meth in Bangkok a focus after massacre

    Following the horrific daycare centre massacre in Nong Bua, where the killer had been battling drug charges, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration announced plans to focus on getting meth out of the capital. After a rash of drug-related crimes including the daycare centre massacre and another similar from the next day when a man was arrested outside of his child’s school…

  • Debt, drugs and death in Phatthalung midnight murder mystery

    Debt, drugs and death in Phatthalung midnight murder mystery

    The story has emerged in today’s Bangkok Post of a Phatthalung woman who was making her way to the hospital after escaping the clutches of her abusive husband. Already in a state of shock, 26 year old Dararat Songnui was further traumatised by the site of her husband’s corpse by the road. Suphamit Chandee had been stabbed to death. A…

  • Phew! No drug use in Phuket clubs – Police

    Phew! No drug use in Phuket clubs – Police

    After receiving complaints from area residents about illicit drug use in bars and clubs in Phuket Town, police officers inspected entertainment venues. On Friday, the inspection took place to check various bars, nightclubs, and other nightlife entertainment venues after online complaints went viral. The inspection saw around 20 police officers from Phuket City Police and the Mueang Phuket District Office check…

  • Miracle at nap time – the girl who survived

    Miracle at nap time – the girl who survived

    Three-year-old Ammy slept through the whole thing. During the assault by the crazy killer who burst into her daycare centre, Ammy slumbered on, unnoticed by the man with the knives. Ammy has a habit of completely wrapping herself up in her blankets, and according to her mother, Panomphat Srithong, that might have saved her. Panomphat was working at an electronics…

  • Once bitten… English financial advisor who took chunk out of Thai investors

    Once bitten… English financial advisor who took chunk out of Thai investors

    Foreign financial “advisors” have been defrauding the country’s ex-pats for decades. Does seeing the arrest of Briton Mark Kirkham mean that the Thai economic police are finally catching up with them? Probably not, and why would you expect them to? Kirkham, according to financial blogger Andrew Drummond, looked every inch the upstanding member of the community on his arrest at…

  • Guns, drugs and mental health – questions for a grieving nation

    Guns, drugs and mental health – questions for a grieving nation

    Since at least 37 people were killed in Thursday’s daycare centre massacre, Thailand has been forced to ask itself some very uncomfortable questions. Gregory Raymond is a lecturer in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs researching Southeast Asian politics and foreign relations. Writing for Australia’s ABC News, Raymond identifies some areas that should be of concern to everyone…