Thailand
Slain insurgents were plotting attacks: Isoc

– Thailand news selected by Gazette editors for Phuket’s international community
PHUKET: Following Wednesday’s operation in which four suspected insurgents were killed and 22 others arrested in Pattani’s Thung Yang Dang district, the Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc)’s 4th Region Front Command yesterday told the press that operative insurgents had gathered there to plot attacks in the area.
Their aim was to discredit the state’s Thung Yang Dang proactive model to boost locals’ participation in promoting safety, it said.
Security was beefed up in the deep South on instructions from Army chief General Udomdech Sitabutr and Army Region 4 chief Lt-General Prakarn Cholayut to guard against retaliatory attacks, the front command spokesman Col Pramote Phrom-in said.
Following a tip-off that alleged operative insurgents were lying low in Tambon Pithen, the 30-strong combined security team surrounded a targeted area on Wednesday at about 6pm, resulting in a clash with some 30 suspected militants. Four suspects were killed and 22 others, all Muslim men, were arrested. The security team seized three AK-47s, one pistol, and one grenade, which would undergo forensic tests to find links to other attacks.
Pramote said the Front Command offered condolences to the families and relatives of the deceased suspects identified as Suhaimee Senlae, 32; Kolid Mameng, 24; Madari Maeroh, 23; Saddam Wanu, 24. It was initially found that one of them had been out on bail in connection with a crime.
The 22 detainees were sent for interrogation, he said. Pramote also affirmed that the detainees would be treated as per law and community leaders’ participation would be included.
Police and district officials went at around midnight yesterday to inspect the clash scene. A source reported that Kolid and Madari were fourth-year students at a university in Pattani’s Yarang district, while Suhaimee was the son of a former tambon-level administrator.
Wednesday’s operation followed a tip-off by locals, which was also in line with news of some insurgents’ movements to plot attacks at military outposts and create violence in the area, Pramote said. He affirmed that the officers had applied legal measures from soft to hard ones but the suspected insurgents opened fire on them in an attempt to escape. The officers fired back leading to the subsequent gunfight and the four deaths.
“It is possible that the group wanted to create violence to discredit the Thung Yang Dang Model, but the cooperation of locals to alert the authorities about their movement helped us intercept it,” he added.
— Phuket Gazette Editors
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Koh Samui
Koh Samui to start Covid-19 vaccinations early next month

Covid-19 vaccinations on Koh Samui will start early next month with 2,500 doses planned to be given to 1,250 people on the island, according to Surat Thani governor Wichawut Jinto. Island authorities are also proposing that foreign visitors be allowed to quarantine on their yacht, at a villa hotel or at a wellness centre.
The tourist island off the coast of Surat Thani in the Gulf of Thailand is deemed as an area of “economic significance” and is included in the first phase of the country’s immunisation plan. The first doses will be given to disease control officials and those in the tourism sector.
The vaccines, which just arrived from overseas yesterday, are expected to be delivered to the island before the end of the month and vaccinations are set to start in early March.
Half of the vaccines are reserved for those in the healthcare field as well as local government officials. Around 26% of the doses would be given to local health volunteers and the general public. 22% of the doses would be given to workers in the tourism industry, including airport employees and hotel quarantine employees. 2% of the doses will go to Covid-19 inspectors.
SOURCE: Bangkok Post
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Pattaya
Another Thai man claims to have found a rare Melo pearl, shell was sold at a Pattaya market

Another Thai man is claiming to have found a rare Melo pearl. The Pattaya chef says he bought a shell from a local market a decade ago and had no idea the object inside was a rare pearl. After hearing the news about the man in Nakhon Si Thammarat finding what he believes is a Melo pearl possibly worth millions of baht, 57 year old Patipat Hatthadon took the pearl off his shelf and brought it to the Gem and Jewelry Institution of Thailand where it was declared a real Melo pearl weighing 90.10 carats.
The chef bought the shell at the Larn Poe Market in Naklua 10 years ago. He found the pearl inside, but didn’t realise what it was. At first he thought the orange pearl was just a weight, like a lead ball some market vendor put inside to make the shells heavier and up the price.
“I tried to use a knife to pierce the pearl and determine what it was but it didn’t work and I had left it on a religious shelf for the past decade, unaware of what I potentially had.”
Patipat obtained a certificate from the institution. He’s keeping the pearl at a bank and he’s filed a report with Banglamung Police for legal protection due to the value of the pearl. It might be worth millions of baht. He says he’s already been contacted by numerous collectors from across the world. He’s currently considering the offers, he says.
Earlier this month, a Thai fisherman found what he believes to be a Melo pearl possibly worth 10 million baht. He found the pearl in a shell on a Nakhon Si Thammarat beach in Southern Thailand. The news coverage, both nationally and internationally, caught police attention who say the man is a suspect in a drug case. He was arrested 2 weeks ago at his home by the beach.
SOURCE: Pattaya News
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Drugs
Thailand law enforcement gets new “laser” narcotics analysers

Thailand law enforcement will now use a new “laser” narcotics analyser to test suspicious substances and chemicals in major drug busts. It’s apparently a more accurate method to identify illicit drugs than the current colour test. The new portable drug test happens to come a few months after Thailand claimed to have seized 11.5 tonnes of ketamine in the “biggest drug bust ever” and then discovered the substance was actually a cleaning agent.
In earlier reports, Justice Minister Somsak Thepsutin said the mistake was a “technical error” and the testing fluid had turned “purple,” a positive sign for ketamine. Somsak didn’t mention the failed ketamine bust when announcing that a pair of “portable Raman spectroscopy analysers” had been delivered to Thailand from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. He says the new tool is more accurate than the colour test.
“The new portable analysers utilise the Raman spectroscopy technique to identify suspicious drugs and chemicals in less than 30 seconds, and more accurately than the colour test method that we currently use.”
Not only can the device detect drugs, but apparently its laser can also detect additives like colouring and flavouring agents, according to Office of the Narcotics Control Board secretary general Wichai Chaimongkhol.
“The machine can detect chemicals either in powder, crystallised, tablet, capsule or liquid form… Its laser can penetrate transparent containers or wrapping of up to 2mm thickness and read the scattering of light to identify the substance accurately, reducing the risk of officials handling harmful chemicals while also helping preserve the evidence.”
The tool is planned to be used to identify suspicious drugs and chemicals that are smuggled across the border as well as at airports and seaports.
SOURCE: Nation Thailand
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