Thai cops trim crime: Israeli drug dealer & Russian barber snipped

Pha Ngan Tourist Police in the southern province of Surat Thani reported the successful arrest of an Israeli drug dealer and a Russian man illegally operating a barbershop on the island.

Pha Ngan Tourist Police launched an operation to arrest foreigners working illegally and committing crimes on the island following multiple complaints from locals in the area. The investigation into these illegal activities led officers to the alleged Israeli drug dealer, later identified as 27 year old Libby Rosenfeld Cohen.

Libby was reportedly found living a luxurious life and offering ecstasy to foreign visitors on the Koh Pha Ngan island. Police posed as customers ordering ecstasy from Libby and arranged a meeting to transfer the drug.

Libby arrived at the meeting point on her Yamaha AEROX motorcycle. She was shocked to see the police instead of her customer. Officers requested to search her and found ecstasy tablets packed in a plastic zip-lock bag.

Libby was charged under Section 145 of the Narcotics Control Act for possessing a Category 1 drug (ecstasy) for sale. The penalty is imprisonment from two to 20 years and a fine of 200,000 to 2 million baht.

The Israeli drug dealer confessed to her drug-dealing activities and cried throughout the arrest and legal proceedings.

In the other case, officers found a Russian man, 29 year old Vladislav Rovinskii, advertising his barbershop on a Telegram application, which is popular among Russian nationals. Officers then raided his shop yesterday and found he was providing a service to a foreign customer.

A barber is a prohibited occupation according to Thai law, and his shop was also operated without a license.

Rovinskii was charged under Section 8(1) of the Emergency Decree on Foreigners’ Working Management for working without a work permit or working outside of what he was entitled to do. The penalty is a fine of 5,000 to 50,000 baht, deportation, and a ban on applying for a work permit for two years.