TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME IN THAILAND Sittipong Tanyapongpruch* I. INTRODUCTION encounters the full scale of criminal activities in the illegal drug trade, from Crime is unwanted in every society, producing, trading, smuggling and the but it seems that crime inevitably exists wide use of illegal drugs among Thai in every country. No matter how hard we people. Illegal drugs and narcotics try to suppress, prevent or eliminate popularly used in Thailand are crime, we still hear reports of crimes methamphetamine or “speed pills”, every day everywhere in this modern heroin, cannabis, opium, ecstasy and world. Moreover, some of the criminals cocaine. Heroin is the most dangerous nowadays have changed their activities drug and is very popular. However, the and taken advantage from the progress of Narcotic Suppression Office has tried easy communication and transportation. very hard to arrest and prevent the They organize and build up their trafficking and smuggling of heroin. In networks and spread their activities recent years we have seen the decreasing across the borders of countries. Only significance in the trafficking of heroin minor crime seems to happen in but we have seen an increase in individual countries while serious crime producing and trafficking of has become borderless and transnational methamphetamine or speed pills instead. in nature. Thus, the impact of their The reasons are that speed pills are activities is greater than before and easier to produce and more difficult to usually involves more than one country. catch. With a simple machine easily found in markets and a vehicle like a Organized criminal groups in Thailand minivan which can be modified to be a exist in many forms and engage in many mobile factory. To make the situation activities. Thai criminals join with much worse, people tend to have a wrong foreign criminals and operate illegal attitude that speed pills are not as activities in Thailand which have a dangerous as heroin. All of these factors impact in other countries. They are well allow speed pills to penetrate schools and organized and difficult to detect. The universities and every section of society. examples of such transnational organized Students use speed pills, believing that crime activities in Thailand are as they can stay up all night long preparing follows. for examinations and they will never become addicted to them. Truck drivers II. SPECIFIC CRIMES IN THAILAND use speed pills in order to be able to work all day long without exhaustion. Thus, A. Drug Related Crimes there is news of methamphetamine The most serious criminal problem in traffickers having been arrested everyday Thailand is illegal drugs trafficking. with more than one hundred thousand Thailand is one of the countries that pills seized at a time. The manufacturing plants for speed pills are located along * Judge, Central Intellectual Property and the Thai-Burma border. The chemical, International Trade Court, Thailand namely “Ephedrine” used as the 601 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 59 precursor, is smuggled from the Southern charges of falsifying and using official border of China down to the Thai-Burma documents to smuggle Thai women to border. The Thai intelligence service Hong Kong for prostitution. estimates 600–700 million speed pills would be produced this year (2001) inside C. Illegal CD Copying Burma. Forty million methamphetamine Copyright infringement is also another pills are ready for gradual smuggling into practice that many people are involved in Thailand. On July 13, 2001 the Thai and can get very good rewards. The cost Army patrolling the border clashed with of producing an infringed CD is just only the smugglers, seizing about 2.6 million 20 baht or almost 50 cents but it can be pills. One Thai soldier was killed in the sold at 150 baht or almost US$3. clash. Meanwhile, the narcotics police Moreover, the machines and materials to seized 74 kilograms of heroin and seized produce the infringed CDs are not nearly 90 million baht ($2 million) in cash difficult to obtain while the CDs can be and bank deposits. The drugs were produced in a large number in a rather smuggled from laboratories in Pangsang, short period of time. The infringed CDs Burma’s Northern Shan State, through are sold not only in Thailand but also in Laos to Chiang Saen district in Chieng the neighboring countries, such as Laos, Rai, Thailand. The drugs were seized in Cambodia, Burma and Malaysia. Bangkok and were believed to be destined Recently, the police and customs officers for the United States. The suspects were have seized the infringed CDs disguised placed under police surveillance for some as export goods to Mexico. time before the arrest. They were also known by the Thai and US Drugs D. Money Laundering Enforcement Administration to have The Office of Anti-Money Laundering close ties with Wei Hsueh-kang, a has been set up after the Money fugitive drugs warlord, who heads Laundering Control Act B.E. 2542 (1999) methamphetamine production in the came to effect. After only 9 months of United Wa State Army in the Shan State. operation, the amount of money it has confiscated is more than 240 million baht. B. Prostitution It is believed that much more money is The expansion of the city and changing being laundered in Thailand. of the Thai society from an agricultural to industrial society has accelerated the E. Illegal Firearms Trafficking practice of prostitution. Many of the Geographically, Thailand is located women and children have been lured to among the neighbor countries that have be prostitutes in the big city such as political unrest in their countries i.e. Chiengmai, Ubonrathchatanee, Hatyai, Burma and Cambodia. In the past 10 Pattaya and Bangkok. However, many years, a number of firearms have been foreign women from Eastern European smuggled in and out of Thailand into countries are also coming voluntarily to those two countries. Firearms control in work as prostitutes in Thailand. Thailand seems to fail. Many of the 400,000 handguns imported since 1995 On the other hand, there is also a gang were brought in on fake import licenses. supplying Thai women to foreign Guns imported on fake licenses were countries for prostitution. On July 18, mainly sold to third parties. This illicit 2001 three Thai men posing as but highly profitable business was a parliamentary officials were arrested on 602 119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSE PARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS major obstacle to the suppression of Malaysia and Singapore have been crimes. smuggled for sale in Thailand. F. Human Trafficking H. Financial and Securities Fraud The growth and development of On July 26, 2001, a total of 85 Thailand in the past 10 years, compared foreigners and 17 Thais were arrested at to neighboring countries, have induced the offices of the Brinton Group and foreign people to make every effort to Benson Dupont Capital Management, migrate to Thailand. Some of them, two companies accused by securities mostly Chinese, try further to make their regulators of running unlicensed way to a third country illegally with the securities services and defrauding foreign help of organized crime gangs. Firstly, investors. Total damages incurred by the criminal networks that help send foreign investors were estimated at 300 people into a third country will send their million Australian dollars or 6.9 billion people into Thailand to operate as a baht. The raids were led by the Securities travel agency in order to disguise their and Exchange Commission, Anti-Money operations. The travel agency, then, Laundering Office, economic crime brings in foreign tourists, mostly Chinese suppression police, immigration and who later on will jump their visa, stay in labor officials with the co-operation in Thailand and wait for a new passport. investigation of the US Federal Bureau of The travel agency will get the real Investigation and the Australian Federal passports from many countries, e.g. Police. The foreign suspects included 30 Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, etc. Englishmen, 14 Americans, 10 Irish in the amount of 15,000–35,000 baht per nationals, 10 Australians, 6 Filipinos, 5 passport. For someone who already has a Canadians, 2 Singaporeans, and one visa the cost is about 100,000–200,000 person each from Burma, Jamaica, baht. Then, the travel agent will change Liberia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Spain, the photos in these passports into the Scotland and India. This is the largest photos of the immigrants. Each case of its kind in Thailand. immigrant needs to study Japanese, English or the Korean language The criminal nowadays is getting more depending on what passport he shall get. complex in terms of activity and Then, a group of immigrants is ready to organization. People involved in an travel to the destination country. organized criminal group are of many Obviously, the proceeds in this activity nationalities. They may plan in one state are quite large. to take action in another state. However, every domestic law of every country is G. Smuggling of Stolen Vehicles applicable within its jurisdiction only. It Many vehicles, particularly pick-up is almost impossible for one state alone to vans and motorcycles, in Thailand are combat against such transnational stolen everyday and have been smuggled organized crimes. In Thailand there are to Cambodia, Burma and Laos. The many laws and regulations which are stolen vehicles are sold at a very cheap outdated and have not been amended to price. The vehicles are stolen at night and deal with this new kind of organized are driven to the border the next morning criminal group. A lack of sharing with fake license plates and then they are information among law enforcement taken across the border. However, there agencies has been seen as one obstacle are reports that some vehicles stolen from 603 RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No.