TRANSNATIONAL ORGANIZED CRIME IN THAILAND
Sittipong Tanyapongpruch*
I. INTRODUCTION
Crime is unwanted in every society,but it seems that crime inevitably exists
in every country. No matter how hard wetry to suppress, prevent or eliminate
crime, we still hear reports of crimes
every day everywhere in this modernworld. Moreover, some of the criminals
nowadays have changed their activities
and taken advantage from the progress ofeasy communication and transportation.
They organize and build up theirnetw orks and sprea d their activities
across the borders of countries. Only
minor crime seems to happen in
individual countries while serious crime
has become borderless and transnationalin nature . Thus, the impa ct of the ir
activities is greater than before andusually involves more than one country.
Organized criminal groups in Thailand
exist in many forms and engage in manyac tivitie s. Th ai c rim inals jo in withforeign criminals and operate illegala ctivitie s in Tha ila nd which ha ve a
impact in other countries. They are wellorganized and difficult to detect. The
examples of such transnational organizedc ri m e a c t i v it i e s i n T h a i l a n d a re a sfollows.
II. SPECIFIC CRIMES IN THAILAND
A. Drug Related Crimes
The most serious criminal problem inThailand is illegal drugs trafficking.
Thailand is one of the countries that
* Judge,

CentralIntellectual

Property

International Trade Court, Thailand

andencounters the full sca le of criminal
activities in the illegal drug trade, fromproducing, trading, smuggling and thewide use of illegal drugs among Thaip e op l e . I ll eg a l d r ug s a n d na r c ot ic s
popularly used in Thailand arem eth am p he tam ine o r “sp e e d p ills”,
heroin, cannabis, opium, ecstasy andcocaine. Heroin is the most dangerous
drug and is very popular. However, theNarcotic Suppression Office has triedve ry ha rd to a rrest and prevent thetrafficking and smuggling of heroin. In
recent years we have seen the decreasing
significance in the trafficking of heroin
but we have seen an increase inprod ucing
andtraffickingof
methamphetamine or speed pills instead.
The rea sons are that speed pills areeasier to produce and more difficult tocatch. With a simple machine ea silyfound in markets and a vehicle like aminivan which can be modified to be amobile factory. To make the situationmuch worse, people tend to have a wrong
attitu de th at sp ee d p ills are n ot as
dangerous as heroin. All of these factors
allow speed pills to penetrate schools anduniversities and every section of society.
Students use speed pills, believing thatthey can stay up all night long preparing
for examinations and they will never
become addicted to them. Truck drivers
use speed pills in order to be able to work
all day long without exhaustion. Thus,
the re is ne w s o f m e tha m p he ta m ine
traffickers having been arrested everyday
with more than one hundred thousand
pills seized at a time. The manufacturing
plants for speed pills are located along
the Thai-Burma border. The chemical,
namely “Ephedrine” used as the601

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 59
precursor, is smuggled from the Southernborder of China down to the Thai-Burmaborder. The Thai intelligence service
estimates 600–700 million speed pills
would be produced this year (2001) inside
Burma. Forty million methamphetamine
pills are ready for gradual smuggling into
Thailand. On July 13, 2001 the Thai
Army patrolling the border clashed withthe smugglers, seizing about 2.6 million
pills. One Thai soldier was killed in theclash. Meanwhile, the narcotics police
seized 74 kilograms of heroin and seizednearly 90 million baht ($2 million) in cash
a n d b a n k d e p osit s. T he d r ugs w er esmuggled from laboratories in Pangsang,
Burma’s Northern Shan State, throughLaos to Chiang Saen district in Chieng
Rai, Thailand. The drugs were seized inBangkok and were believed to be destinedfor the United States. The suspects wereplaced under police surveillance for sometime before the arrest. They were also
known by the Thai and U S Drugs
Enforcement Administration to havec l o s e t ie s w it h W e i H s u e h - k a n g , af u gi t iv e d r u gs w a r lo r d , w h o h e a d smethamphetamine production in theUnited Wa State Army in the Shan State.
B. Prostitution
The expansion of the city and changing
of the Thai society from an agricultural toindustrial society has accelerated thepractice of prostitution. Many of thewomen and children have been lured to
be prostitutes in the big city such as
Chiengmai, Ubonrathchatanee, Hatyai,Pattaya and Bangkok. However, many
foreign women from Eastern European
countries are also coming voluntarily towork as prostitutes in Thailand.
On the other hand, there is also a gang
supplying Thai women to foreigncountries for prostitution. On July 18,
2001 three Thai me n posing asparliamentary officials were arrested on602

charges of falsifying and using official
documents to smuggle Thai women to
Hong Kong for prostitution.
C. Illegal CD Copying
Copyright infringement is also anotherpractice that many people are involved inand can get very good rewards. The costof producing an infringed CD is just only
20 baht or almost 50 cents but it can besold at 150 baht or almost US$3.
Moreover, the machines and materials top r o d u ce t he in f ri n g e d C D s a r e n o tdifficult to obtain while the CDs can beproduced in a large number in a rather
short period of time. The infringed CDs
are sold not only in Thailand but also in
the neighboring countries, such as Laos,
Cam bodia, Burm a and M alaysia.
Recently, the police and customs officers
have seized the infringed CDs disguised
as export goods to Mexico.
D. Money Laundering
The Office of Anti-Money Launderinghas been set up after the MoneyLaundering Control Act B.E. 2542 (1999)
came to effect. After only 9 months ofoperation, the amount of money it has
confiscated is more than 240 million baht.
It is believed that much more money is
being laundered in Thailand.
E. Illegal Firearms Trafficking
Geographically, Thailand is locatedamong the neighbor countries that havepolitical unrest in their countries i.e.
Burma and Cambodia. In the past 10years, a number of firearms have beensmuggled in and out of Thailand into
those two countries. Firearms control in
Thaila nd seem s to f ail. M any of the400,000 handguns imported since 1995
were brought in on fake import licenses.
Guns imported on fake licenses weremainly sold to third parties. This illicit
but highly profitable business was a119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
ma jor ob sta cle to the suppression ofcrimes.

M a la ys ia a n d S ing a p o r e h a v e b ee nsmuggled for sale in Thailand.

F. Human Trafficking
The growth and development ofThailand in the past 10 years, comparedto neighboring countries, have induced
foreign people to make every effort tom igra te to Tha il and . S ome of them ,mostly Chinese, try further to make their
way to a third country illegally with thehelp of organized crime gangs. Firstly,
the criminal networks that help sendpeople into a third country will send theirpeople into Thailand to operate as a
travel agency in order to disguise theiropera tions. The travel a gency, then,brings in foreign tourists, mostly Chinese
who later on will jump their visa, stay inThailand and wait for a new passport.
T he t r a v e l a g e nc y w i l l g et t he re a lpa sspo rts from m any countries, e.g.
Singapore, Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, etc.
in the amount of 15,000–35,000 baht perpassport. For someone who already has avisa the cost is about 100,000–200,000
baht. Then, the travel agent will change
the photos in these passports into thephotos of the immigrants. Each
imm igrant needs to study Japanese,
English or the Korean language
depending on what passport he shall get.
Then, a group of immigrants is ready totravel to th e des tination cou ntry.
Obviously, the proceeds in this activity
are quite large.

H. Financial and Securities Fraud
On July 26, 2001, a total of 85
foreigners and 17 Thais were arrested at
the offices of the Brinton Group a nd
Benson Dupont Capital Management,
two companies accused by securities
regulators of running unlicensed
securities services and defrauding foreign
investors. Total damages incurred byforeign investors were estimated at 300
million Australian dollars or 6.9 billion
baht. The raids were led by the Securities
and Exchange Commission, Anti-Money
L a un d e r ing O f f ic e , ec o n o m ic c r im e
suppression police, immigration a ndlabor officials with the co-operation ininvestigation of the US Federal Bureau ofInvestigation and the Australian Federal
Police. The foreign suspects included 30Englishmen, 1 4 Americans, 1 0 Irish
nationals, 10 Australians, 6 Filipinos, 5Canadians, 2 Singaporeans, and one
p e rs on e a c h f ro m B u r m a , J a m a ic a ,Liberia, New Zealand, Malaysia, Spain,
Scotland and India. This is the largest
case of its kind in Thailand.

G. Smuggling of Stolen Vehicles
Many vehicles, particularly pick-up
vans and motorcycles, in Thailand arestolen everyday and have been smuggled
to C am b od ia , B urm a a nd La o s. Th estolen vehicles are sold at a very cheap
price. The vehicles are stolen at night andare driven to the border the next morningwith fake license plates and then they aretaken across the border. However, there
are reports that some vehicles stolen fromThe criminal nowadays is getting morecom plex in te rms of activity andorga niza tio n. P eo ple invo lve d in an
organized criminal group are of manynationalities. They may plan in one state
to take action in another state. However,every domestic law of every country isapplicable within its jurisdiction only. Itis almost impossible for one state alone toco m b a t a g a i n st s uc h t ra ns na t i o na lorganized crimes. In Thailand there aremany laws and regulations which areoutdated and have not been amended todeal with this new kind of organizedcriminal group. A lack of sharing
informa tion am ong law enforcement
agencies has been seen as one obstacle

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RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 59
where our officers need to improve theirperformance.
II. MEASURES TAKEN TO STEP UP
INTERNATIONAL COOPERATION
A. Cooperation in Criminal MattersAmong States
A better way of combating organizedcrime is to prevent it from occurringinstead of suppressing it. To guarantee
successful crime prevention, the accuracyo f inf orm atio n is a vita l p ar t of theoperation. Since each law enforcement
age ncy in e very cou ntry still wo rks
independently within its jurisdiction,c o m b a t i ng t ra n s na t i on a l or ga n iz e dcrimes shall never be successful withoutc o - o p e ra ti o n b e tw e e n th e s ta te s insharing information and other mattersneeded to get the criminals brought tojustice.
Th e A ct o n M utu al A ssi stan ce in
Criminal Matters B.E. 2535 (1992) has
been enacted in order for law enforcement
to be able to co-opera te w ith foreigna u t h o r it i e s i n t he s e m a t t e r s w h e nr e que ste d . T he “A ss istan ce ” m e ans
assistanc e re gard ing in vestigatio n,inquir y, prosecution, for feiture ofproperty and other proceedings relatingto criminal matters. The Office of theAttorney General shall be the central
authority that has the authority andfunction to be the coordinator inproviding assistance to a foreign state orin seeking assistance from a foreign state
under this Act.
The duties of the central authority are
as follows:
1. To receive the request for assistancefrom the Requesting State andtransmit it to the Competent
Authority;604

2. To receive the request seekingassistance presented by the agency of
the R o ya l Tha i Go ve rnm e nt a nddeliver to the Requested State;
3. To consider and determine whether toprovide or seek assistance;
4. To
follow
andexpedite
theperf orm ance of the Com petent
Authorities in providing assistance toa foreign state for the purpose ofexpeditious conclusion;
5. To issue regulations or announcements
for the implementation of this Act;
6. To carry out other acts necessary forthe success of providing or seeking
assistance under this Act.
The assistance that may be rendered isas follows:
1. Taking statements from persons,providing out of court documents,articles and evidence;
2. Serving documents, searching andseizing of documents or articles;
3. To locate a person;
4. Taking the testimony of witnesses;
5. Forfeiture or seizure of properties;
6. Transfer of persons in custody fortestimonial purposes;
7. Request for initiating criminal
proceedings.
B. Extradition
To prevent any criminal from escaping
fro m justice, no m atte r ho w f a r thecriminal runs, the law shall be able to get
him brought back to justice. The mosteffective tool to get the runaway criminalfrom another state is to ask the authority
in such state to send him back home fortrial. T his is k now n as e xtradition.
Thailand has had an Extradition Act
since B.E. 2472, since 1929. The person
accused or convicted of crimes committed
within the jurisdiction of other States
may be sent to such States, provided thatby the law of Thailand such crimes are119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
punishable with imprisonment of not lessthan 1 year. In addition, Thailand also
has bilateral agreements with Belgium,the Philippines, Indonesia, the United
K i n g d o m a n d t h e U n it e d S t a t e s o f
America. Thailand has extradited one
Thai politician alleged of sending tons ofcannabis to the US. Recently, Thailand
has requested the extra dition of one
executive of a financial company alleged
to have committed financial fraud inThailand from the UK but the result wasnot successful.
III. MEASURES TAKEN TO
IMPROVE RELATED LAWS AND
REGULATIONS
A. Measures Against Drug
Trafficking
The Act on Measures for theSuppression of Offenders in Offences
Relating to Narcotics B.E. 2534 (1991) isenacted with the objective to cut thegrowing trade in narcotics by seizing any
property related to the narcotic offences
and any tools, machines, transportation
vehicles and prope rties used forcommitting narcotics offences. Property
re la ted to na rco tics o ff e nces m ea ns
money, proceeds received in relation withth e na rc otic o f fe nc es inc lud ing a ny
property derived from such proceeds ormoney. All of the seized properties andproceeds shall go to the Narcotic
Supp ression Fund for use in thesuppression of such crimes.
B. Anti Money-Laundering Law
In 1999, the parliament enacted the“Money Laundering Control Act B.E.
2542 (1999)” in order to combat money
laundering practices. The Act requires
the financial institutions to report everytransaction in the amount exceeding 2
million baht to the Office of the Money
Laundering Control for investigation. The

Off ice also has the p owe r to gather
evidence for the purpose of taking legal
proceedings against offenders of predicate
offences, which is any offence:
1. relating to narcotics;
2. relating to sexuality in respect ofprocuring, seducing or taking away
for an indecent act a woman and childfor sexual gratification of others,
offence of taking away a child andminor;
3. relating to public fraud;
4. relating to misappropriation or fraud
or ex e rtio n o f a n a c t of vio le n ce
against property or dishonest conduct
under the law governing financialinstitutions;5. of malfeasance in office or judicialoffice;6. relating to extortion or blackmailcommitted by claiming an influence ofa secret society or criminal
association;
7. relating to smuggling under thecustoms law.
C. Capital Punishment
On July 26, 2001 the Criminal Court
sentenced 19 drug traffickers to deathand two others to life in five different
cases involving over 2 million
methamphetamine pills and 9 kilogramsof heroin. Only 5 days later, the Criminal
Court sentenced another 14 drugtraffickers to death. They were charged
with the possession of methamphetaminet o t h e t o t a l o f 4 5 0 ,0 0 0 p i l l s a nd 3 0kilograms of heroin. The death penalty
has been a hot issue for debate amonglawyers in Thailand about its
justification for combating crime. It is not
so long ago that the government amended
the narcotics law by changing
methamphetamine from a stimulant
substance to a narcotic. The result is thatthe traffickers shall face capital
punishment. It is submitted that the605

RESOURCE MATERIAL SERIES No. 59
death penalty is still useful in Thailand
although it is argued by the human rights
activity groups that there is no concrete
evidence that the death penalty helps
decrease crime.
D. Plea Bargaining
The concept of “Plea bargaining” isquite a new legal concept in Thailand. It
is believed that one who commits thec rim e d e se rv e s to b e p un ish e d a t acertain level. However, since criminal
activities are getting more complex as
they are organized into groups and theiractivities go beyond the geographicalborder of the state, therefore, thedefendant who has been arrested may
hold some useful information from theirgroups which, once revealed, may be
useful to law enforcement to be able toarrest the ring leader. Recently, there is a
discussion of how we shall implement theplea bargaining concept into Thai laws.
There are several studies and seminars
about the appropriate solution toimplement plea bargaining practices incriminal proceedings. It is felt that therea re some difficulties, since the Thaicriminal procedure allows an injured
party to file criminal cases in court. The
use of plea bargaining might have some
affect on such injured parties. Therefore,
it is felt that plea bargaining shall be
used only in illegal drug cases where thestate is the injured party.
E. Witness Protection Scheme
Witnesses in criminal cases normally
try to refuse to testify in court against
influential suspects, including organizedcriminal groups, in fear of danger tothemselves and their families which
result in the dismissal of cases. Every
year, 20% of all criminal cases are thrownout of court because the prime witnesses
are too afraid to take the stand. The
Ministry of Justice has proposed the“Witness Protection Bill” in order to606

overcome such fear. Under the draft bill,protection will be the responsibility of thepolice to carry out this task until theWitness Protection Office is established.
T he re s ha ll b e ge n e r a l an d sp e c ia lme asure s for w itness p rotectio n. I n
general ca ses , the investig ator or
p ro se cu to r, w ith the re q u es t o f thewitness, may ask the Witness Protection
Office to order protection for up to 30
days subject to necessity in the case.
However, in an emergency situation, theinve stigator o r pro secuto r w ould b eempowered to order the police protection
for their witness for up to 5 days at atime. The special measures are designed
to apply to cases involving trading innarcotics, w o men a nd child ren. The
Minister of Justice may order special
measures for witness protection. The
measures include relocation of a witness
residence, changing of witness identity
and records, as well as providing theliving allowances job training for up to 2years. Both general and special measures
can be extended to the witness’s spouse,
parent, children a nd person in close
relationship with such witnesses.
Although there is a worry about the
shortage of budget, this witness
pr ote ction p rogr a mm e is in evita b ly
necessary to combat organized crime.
Moreover, the use of modern technology
in trials are also being introduced. To
reduce the fear of witnesses taking thew it n e s s st a nd a nd c o n f r o n ti n g th e
defendant who may be an influential
person or member of an organized crimegang, the use of video conferencing wherewitnesses testify in front of the video
camera in a room separate from the trial
ro o m sh o uld b e use d inste a d of theordinary method. This should make thewitnesses feel more relaxed andcomfortable to tell the whole truth. The
proposed bill to amend the Thai Criminal
Procedure Code for allowing the use of

119TH INTERNATIONAL TRAINING COURSEPARTICIPANTS’ PAPERS
video conferencing is at the scrutiny of
the Office of the Council of State.
IV. CONCLUSION
Transnational organized crime has
spread and done harm to many countries.
The cooperation of every state to suppress
such crime is important and needs to beestablished as soon as possible. Moreover,the need of harmonizing the domestic
l a w s in o r d e r t o m a k e c o o p e r a t i o npossible is also vital.

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