Hot News
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Sponsored 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?...
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Phuket kratom cooks caught in the act
PHUKET: Police in Kamala, on Phuket’s west coast, nabbed two men cooking up a batch of the illegal drug cocktail “4×100” at a workers’ camp on Friday.“Plain clothes police informed us that two men, Aekkaluk Phanchalard, 29, and Suthep Abdulsamak, 42, were making 4×100 at the camp,” explained Lt Suchart Chompooseang of the Kamala Police.Uniformed officers quickly assembled a squad…
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Special Report: Full moon fever more contagious on East Coast
Special Report In a country that markets itself to the world as “fun”, the debaucheries of Thailand’s full moon parties have stolen the spotlight as concerns mount over the safety of young partygoers seeking to break loose from reality and walk on a moonbeam. The Phuket Gazette‘s Chutharat Plerin reportsPHUKET: Australia’s Honorary Consul in Phuket condemned all full moon parties…
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Phuket gardening: pure, natural ingredients
PHUKET: Though it is a 19th century Bavarian concept, there are plenty of beer gardens or biergarten around Phuket. Some really are gardens in delightful sylvan settings under mature tamarind or flame trees. Think Nikita’s in Rawai, or the row of hostelries along the hilly road from Nai Harn to Rawai. But I am more interested in a different kind…
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Phuket officials bag six kratom, dope peddlers in 24 hours
PHUKET: A Rassada village headman busted five men for possession of kratom and marijuana on Saturday – and yesterday, in concert with the Phuket Internal Security Office (PISO), arrested a man bringing kratom leaves to Phuket by bus. PISO deputy chief Thammarong Chuayaksorn and Baan Bang Chi Lao village chief Sangkom Sinthupradit, acting on a tip-off that kratom would be…
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Brothers arrested for hotel room drug depot shopfront
PHUKET: Two brothers were arrested on drugs charges on Friday, with police suspecting that the siblings were using a hotel room in Cherng Talay to store and sell their wares. “We received a report from one of our undercover agents about the brothers renting a hotel room to store drugs, and we obtained a warrant to search their house in…
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Kratom user rats out Phuket drug dealer
PHUKET: A nervous drug suspect brought police back to his kratom dealer’s house after being busted at a Phuket checkpoint. The 19-year-old appeared suspicious to police as he arrived at a checkpoint established at Muang Mai – Pa Khlok Road yesterday. “We had the checkpoint set up to search for drugs and weapons in the crime prone area,” Thalang Police…
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Busted: Alleged drug dealer’s operation across from Phuket school
PHUKET: Police busted a Burmese drug dealer suspected of operating out of a house across the street from a Phuket school yesterday evening.Staking out a house across from Baan Kata School, Phuket Provincial Police officer Wanchai Palawan and his team waited for Anan Kanyarat, 36, to leave the residence before stopping and searching him.Police found 4.5 grams of marijuana on…
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Police open fire as drug suspect rams Phuket Town blockade
PHUKET: Police officers opened fire on a suspected drug dealer after he rammed his Honda Jazz into a police patrol pickup blocking his escape in Phuket Town early yesterday evening. Police were following the Honda Jazz of 28-year-old Thaweepong Kerdpol, a suspected drug dealer, after they received a tip-off that he was in the Chalong area. Mr Thaweepong stopped for…
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British national’s extended holiday goes to pot at Phuket “dope hotel’
PHUKET: Phuket Immigration officers today arrested a British man for drug possession and for overstaying his visa by more than two* years. The arrest was made at the same resort, off Taina Road in Karon, where a Swedish man was arrested on drug charges last Thursday (story here). “At 11:30am, we received a report from our undercover officers to investigate…
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Phuket monks defrocked after being caught with drugs
PHUKET: Four monks and a lay worker at the well-known Wat Kajornrungsan on Ranong Road in Phuket Town were arrested Tuesday night after a tip-off led police to catch them with drugs.“We went to Wat Kajornrungsan after local residents reported to us that they suspected some monks were using drugs,” Phuket City Police Deputy Superintendent Prawit Engchuan told the Phuket…
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Phuket Police bust ATM card fraud gang
PHUKET: Tourist Police have arrested two French nationals and a Tunisian man for operating an ATM card fraud scam in Phuket.The foreigners – named by police as French nationals Mahamond Mhoussin, 22, and Zaidi Ganzouai, 29, and Tunisian national Ramzi Adjemi, 31 – were presented to the press at the Phuket Tourist Police headquarters in Phuket Town this morning.“Tourist Police…
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Driver with drugs in black plate taxi trunk gets attempted bribery charges to boot
PHUKET: A Phuket bound “black plate” taxi was caught doing double-duty yesterday as it hauled 45 kilograms of kratom leaves back from Surat Thani after dropping a group of Russian tourists off in a resort in Nakorn Sri Thammarat. The drug-running duo in the car have been charged with the intent to sell a category five drug and for bribery…
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National defense volunteer nabbed with marijuana at Phuket checkpoint
PHUKET: Thalang Police arrested a national defense volunteer with two bags of marijuana at a checkpoint in Thalang on Saturday. When police saw a white Toyota Vios attempting to avoid the checkpoint at Baan Yamu at 8:30pm, they stopped the car, driven by Supakij Benjamas, 29, and searched it. “We found two bags of marijuana and tobacco in a peanut…
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Police snap up “kratom’ grower in northern Phuket
PHUKET: Police in the northern Phuket area of Thalang yesterday raided and shut down a tropical fruit orchard that was also being used as a kratom-growing operation. The orchard owner, named by police as Nathee Tianthong,50, had five kratom trees growing on his property – in his house police found 400 grams of harvested leaves. All five trees were cut…
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World News: I killed Afghan insurgents – Prince Harry
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH– World news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Britain’s Prince Harry says he killed Afghan insurgents during tour Reuters / Phuket GazettePHUKET: Britain’s Prince Harry says he killed Afghan insurgents during sorties against the Taliban while on his second tour of duty in Afghanistan where he was a gunner in Apache attack helicopters.Queen Elizabeth’s 28-year-old…
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Phuket safety police blitz nets 8 drug, 3 gun arrests in first week
PHUKET: The first seven days of the month-long police safety boost (story here) in Phuket has yielded eight arrests on gun and drug charges in road checkpoint stops alone. Maj Gen Kittisan Detsunthonwat, Deputy Commander of Provincial Police Region 8, announced yesterday that so far his officers had seized over 300 grams of ya ice (crystal methamphetamine), 2,031 pills of…
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Phuket Books: The Cambodian book of the dead
PHUKET: A veteran journalist on the Asian beat, Tom Vater certainly knows Cambodia. In the crime novel The Cambodian Book of the Dead (Crime Wave Press, Hong Kong, 2012, 287pp), his descriptions of Phnom Penh, Kep and Siem Reap are spot on. The hero is Maier (no first name) who grew up in East Germany under the communist government, where…
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Nepal’s former crown prince shipped to Bangkok: Phuket Police
PHUKET: Nepal’s former crown prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev was transferred to Bangkok on December 4 to face charges at Thonglor Police Station, the Phuket Gazette was told. A senior officer involved in the case, who asked not to be named, told the Gazette that Mr Shah was transferred to Bangkok at 10pm on Tuesday. “He was sent to…
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The Curious Case of the Invisible Crown Prince Paras Shah
PHUKET: Journalists trying to catch a glimpse of Nepal’s infamous former crown prince Paras Bir Bikram Shah Dev, who was due to report to Phuket Provincial Court yesterday, were in for a long and ultimately fruitless wait.By midday, reporters who had been waiting since 9:30am, had still not clapped eyes on the former crown prince entering the court to report…
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Phuket Lifestyle: Drug addiction – Yassine’s cautionary tale
PHUKET: Morocco over the years has been romanticized by Hollywood and through the prose of numerous authors. It’s a place that conjures up images of bazaars, palaces and bustling market squares. But the vision of Morocco from those looking in, is a lot different to the one Yassine Darkaoui endured while looking out from the Northern city of Tangiers. Yassine…
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Phuket Books: A question of savages
PHUKET: I picked up Don Winslow’s Savages (Simon & Schuster, New York, 2010, 358pp) with a good deal of eagerness, having just finished the much-lauded prequel The Kings of Cool, which impressed me with its zany energy, veering between screenplay, poetic stanzas and wise-guy syncopated prose, deeply empathic with the surfer/grass dealer ethos of Laguna Beach, California. Winslow is a…
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Dealer busted after kratom smuggled into Phuket as ‘fresh vegetables’
PHUKET: Phuket Police acting on a tip-off yesterday arrested a dealer and seized 54kg of kratom leaves from an address in Cherng Talay. Col Jirasak Siemsak received the tip-off at about 5pm and quickly put together an investigation team under the command of Maj Pongnarin Suthin. On arrival at a house on Soi Pasak 4, off the Baan Don-Cherng Talay…
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Phuket hacks back drug “growers’ in Thalang
PHUKET: Thalang police and district officers hacked open a path for progress in the war on drugs in Phuket by cutting down more than 60 kratom trees in Srisoonthorn yesterday. Despite the trees being native to Southeast Asia, their leaves have been designated a controlled substance, in the same category as cannabis, since promulgation of the Kratom Act in 1943.…
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Phuket Police bust heroin dealers in Cherng Talay
PHUKET: Police in Phuket yesterday arrested a heroin dealer from Narathiwat, in Thailand’s troubled Deep South, seizing more than 80 grams of the drug as well as a stash of dried marijuana from one of his agents.The arrest was announced at a press conference led by Cherng Talay Police Superintendent Jirasak Siangsak yesterday morning. Col Jirasak presented to the press…
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Thailand News: Verdict delay in war weapon case
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Verdict on eight Thais in war weapon case “could take two weeks” Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: The trial of eight Thais, arrested in Myanmar on charges of possessing war weapons, was scheduled to end today, but it could take two weeks before the court…
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Thailand News: Group to appeal; Myanmar decision expected; Forest fires
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Rayong people to appeal against court verdict on land documents Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: Local residents from Rayong’s Mae Ramphueng area will be appealing to the Supreme Administrative Court against the lower court’s decision to drop their complaint over the land rights documents held…
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Thailand News: Update on drug bust; Leaders oppose curfew; Drink still flowed
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – Thailand news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community Drug packaging warehouse raided after Aussie tip-off Phuket Gazette / The Nation PHUKET: A Thai warehouse for terracotta pots was searched by police who believe that it served as a transit point for illicit drugs to be smuggled into Australia. National Police chief Priewpan Dhamapong said…
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Phuket police take chainsaws to drug problem
PHUKET: Chainsaw-wielding police took a cut out of the drug-supply in Phuket on yesterday, bringing down several enormous kratom trees on Luang Poh Road. Despite kratom trees being native to Southeast Asia, their leaves have been considered a controlled substance, in the same category as cannabis, since promulgation of the Kratom Act in 1943. The law made planting the tree…
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Police crack Phang Nga drug network linked to “kingpin prisoner’
PHUKET: Acting on a tip-off police raided two separate addresses in Phang Nga yesterday resulting in the arrest of six men and the recovery of drugs, weapons, cash and other valuables. The gang was reportedly controlled by an inmate at Nakhon Sri Thammar at Provincial Prison who ordered drugs to be delivered to one of the suspects netted in the…
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Phuket Gazette: Central America most violent; U.S. Coast Guard crash; Hackers arrested
PHUKET MEDIA WATCH – World news compiled by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community UN describes Central America as world’s most violent area, and the U.S. the biggest drug market PHUKET (News Wires): The United Nations (UN) on Tuesday described Central America as one of the most violent areas in the world as drug-related violence continues to rise, signaling the…
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