26 luxury cars stolen from the UK seized, 9 still missing
Some 35 luxury cars, worth about 2,400,000 pounds, or 100 million baht, were smuggled from the United Kingdom to Thailand via Singapore last year. The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) of Thailand announced yesterday that 26 of the luxury cars have been seized while the other nine have not been handed over by owners to the authorities.
The Director of the DSI, Traiyarit Taemahiwong, reported to the Thai media yesterday that the UK’s National Vehicle Crime Intelligence Service, and London police were investigating the smugglers under the project name Operation Titanium from 2018 to 2019.
Among the smuggled cars are a Lamborghini Huracan EVO Spyder, Ferrari, BMW M4, Mercedes-Benz AMG, Nissan GT-R, Porsche Cayenne, Land Rover Range Rover Sport, MINI Cooper, Ford Mustang, Lexus, Audi Q7, Volkswagen, and Honda Civic Type R.
The two UK departments contacted Thailand and invited them into the investigation process because the smuggled cars were found on sale in Thailand.
The Deputy Director of the DSI, Payao Thongsen, revealed the luxury cars were delivered by air from London Heathrow International Airport to Singapore using fake documentation. The cars were then transferred to Thailand by ship.
Payao said seven cars were seized from a car showroom, STT. Auto Car in the Huay Kwang district of Bangkok on March 18, 2018, while seven other cars were nabbed at a Free Trade Zone of the Customs Act on September 10, 2018, after they were sent from an English car company.
The rest of the cars were seized from Thai owners who bought them from car showrooms in Thailand. The remaining nine cars are owned by Thai people who are refusing to hand them over to officers.
The Justice Minister, Somsak Thepsuthin, joined the press conference yesterday and underlined there was no delay in the investigation. The UK requested Thailand to investigate the smuggled cars under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in 2018 but the Thai authorities only managed to secure details on all of the missing cars on September 13, 2021.
Somsak revealed that illegally imported cars can fetch three times the standard rate and that is why some car showrooms smuggled the vehicles.
Somsak also warned the owners who haven’t returned their smuggled cars to take them to the DSI or face prosecution.
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