Man arrested trying to smuggle 28 million baht in gold across Burmese border

A Thai man is under arrest after police say he allegedly was caught smuggling a whopping 28 million baht worth of gold bars across the Burmese border. The man, identified only as 37 year old “Chart” was arrested after being searched at a checkpoint in Sanghklaburi district in Kanchanaburi province last night.

Police say they were tipped off and went to search the man’s Toyota pickup truck, finding a bag that held 18 gold bars, with each weighing 1 kilogram. The driver of the truck is a native of tambon Nong Lu and told the police that a woman named Mayo, owned a gold shop across the border in the Phaya Tongsu township. He says she hired him to buy gold bars from a shop in Bangkok’s Chinatown.

Mayo allegedly told the driver to hang the gold over to a Burmese smuggler who was waiting by the Three Pagodas Pass, a popular border crossing from Thailand’s west into Myanmar. The driver says this wasn’t his first time in helping someone smuggle gold. He admitted to doing the same run 2 times before. Police say the first time was on March 3, as he transported 4 gold bars, estimated to be worth around 6.4 million baht. The second time was last Friday, as he said he transported 5 bars that were worth an estimated 7.5 million baht.

Police also caught 13 illegal Burmese migrants who were seeking jobs in Thailand, after locals tipped them off when they saw the migrants wading in a border river. Those migrants were allegedly joining other relatives who were already working in Bangkok. Police say they arrested the migrants and checked their temperatures with no one displaying a fever at the time of the testing.

The migrants were only part of about 102 people detained at the police station as officials say they are seeing more and more everyday try to cross as a result of the military coup in Myanmar that took place February 1.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post