The Royal Thai Police‘s (RTP) Fuel Crime Suppression Centre recently introduced the arrest of two suspected members of a criminal syndicate often known as “Jae Fang” in Hat Yai, Thailand. The group has allegedly been smuggling petrol from Malaysia and reselling it within the southern provinces of Songkhla, Satun, and Narathiwat.
The suspects, Nee Usman and Eeb Madyusoh, had been apprehended while transferring petrol between modified lorries and pickup vans at a warehouse in Hat Yai district’s Thung Lung area, about 30 kilometres from the immigration checkpoint. Authorities managed to seize two Toyota pickup trucks carrying at least 2,000 litres of diesel.
Deputy national police chief Pol. Gen. Surachate “Big Joke” Hakparn, who is also the Fuel Crime Suppression Centre’s performing director, indicated that the Jae Fang syndicate has operated this unlawful petrol business for no much less than a decade. According to Big Joke, the group usually purchases smuggled petrol from boats working within the Gulf and the Andaman Sea, in addition to utilising modified lorries fitted with giant oil tanks capable of storing as a lot as 1,000 litres each.
No questions asked modified lorries are reported to enter Malaysia a minimal of ten times per day to refill their tanks before crossing the border back into Thailand. The smuggled petrol is then saved within the syndicate’s warehouse, where the 2 suspects have been arrested, earlier than being transferred to vehicles parked nearby in a forest positioned in Tha Phong subdistrict.
Big Joke revealed that Thai authorities are able to seize over one hundred,000 litres of smuggled petrol from neighbouring countries on a month-to-month basis. However, it’s believed that a significantly bigger quantity of the illicit fuel evades detection, causing substantial monetary losses to the state as the untaxed petrol is offered on the black market.
Meanwhile, Pol. Lt. Gen. Itthipol Itthisaranachai, commissioner of Provincial Police Region 2, issued an order to switch Pol.Col. Supoj Rakkarn, the superintendent of Trat provincial police station, for allegedly accepting bribes to facilitate the unlawful export of bikes. Rakkarn’s switch follows a recent raid on an export syndicate within the Khlong Yai district’s Mai Rood subdistrict on February 28..