Crime Suppression Division police have seized 10 imported luxury cars with forged vehicle registrations and false declarations worth about 120 million baht in total in the Central and East regions.   Some of the seized luxury cars had identification numbers taken from wrecked vehicles involved in crashes, said CSD chief Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej during a media briefing at the CSD’s head office..

(Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)

The CSD chief said those involved in the smuggling of imported vehicles had used various tactics to register the smuggled vehicles. Some of the cars were priced at 23 million baht each, he said.  Crime Suppression Division chief Pol Maj Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej shows the interior of a smuggled luxury car, one of the 10 with false registrations. 

CSD police began the investigation into the smuggling following complaints from people who noticed some of the licence plates matched those of their wrecked vehicles. The CSD also launched an investigation…

Source: bangkokpost.com

Footage posted to Facebook showed a man on a motorcycle standing on the seat and going along in downtown Chiang Mai.

 

Jenjira Suphan, 31, said she was with her husband taking their daughter to school. It was in the area of Moon Muang Road.

Pol Lt-Col Suphachai Jantra of the Chiang mai police said it was a rental bike and they had traced it to a member of the Tai Yai ethnic minority group who is aged about 20.

He has been issued with a summons and police would be seeking the top fine for negligent and dangerous riding and not wearing a helmet. 

Source: Daily News

A British man and a German man have been arrested accused of attempting to smuggle drugs onto the tourist island of Bali, Indonesian customs officials said.

Adam Scott was arrested at Bali’s Ngurah Rai airport late last month, customs chief Himawan Indarjono said.

He said officers seized a bottle with 655 Diazepam tablets, also known as Valium, from Mr Scott, a computer analyst who arrived from Bangkok.

The amount, which was not reported on his customs declaration, was judged to be more than he needed for personal use.

He said Mr Scott is suspected of violating the Customs and Psychotropic laws, under which he could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of $22,000 if found guilty.

Two days later, German Siegfried Karl Achim Ruckel, 56, was arrested.

Both Mr Scott and Mr Ruckel were put on display during a press conference on Wednesday wearing black balaclavas and orange jumpsuits.

Another customs official, Husni Syaiful, said Mr Ruckel arrived on January 26 from Doha and possessed 7 grams (0.25 ounces) of heroin, 0.2 grams (0.01 ounces) of amphetamine and 15.3 grams (0.54 ounces) of morphine.

If found guilty, he could face up to a death sentence and a fine of up to $730,000.

Indonesia has extremely strict drug laws and convicted smugglers are sometimes executed.

Eighteen convicts, mostly foreigners, have been executed under President Joko ‘Jokowi’ Widodo, who took office in October 2014 and declared a war on illegal drugs.

More than 150 people are currently on death row, mostly for drug crimes. About a third of them are foreigners.

pattayatoday.net

A distraught daughter of an ailing Alzheimer’s patient has told Thaivisa how her stricken mum is being forced out of Thailand. 

And the family is laying the blame firmly at the door of Thai immigration for changing the financial rules. 

The daughter has spoken of her family’s love for Thailand but this morning 77 year old Anna Padgett will be removed from her Chiang Mai care home and taken to Manila in the Philippines. 

There she will easily get a three year visa without bothersome financial hassles.

Daughter DeAnna Denis, 57 said she personally loves Thailand and doesn’t want to go to the Philippines but the family have no choice. They simply don’t have enough money to deposit 800,000 baht in the bank and leave it there. 

Mrs Denis and her husband who is 55 originally come from Atlanta. They were attracted to Thailand as a retirement option after running a successful web development business that they sold. 

They still live off some revenues but it is not a great deal.

Her mother was looked after in the states by a relative until 2017 when they decided to move her over to Thailand. She has had Alzheimer’s for about 15 years.  A home that specializes in Alzheimer’s care in Chiang Mai called Care Resort was found. 

Though it costs 85,000 baht a month they could just afford it and pay for their own retirement needs first in Koh Samui then on the mainland in Khanom, Nakorn Sri Thammarat. 

Everything was great and the family were all happy. 

But when immigration shifted the goalposts all that changed. 

Immigration refused to negotiate and allow the 86,000 baht to be considered as her mother’s income. \

Rules are rules they said and if they weren’t able to deposit the money that was that. 

The family have put 800,000 baht in the bank and Mrs Padgett could stay to February next year. But with worries about her condition deteriorating and being unable to move her in the future they have decided that it is now or never. 

Mrs Davis described dealing with immigration as highly problematical. She has received mixed messages but the bottom line for her mother is pay up or go.

“Of course my mother is blissfully unaware of all this. She doesn’t even know who I am. But she is happy where she is and we are very concerned about moving her into another potentially confusing environment”.

She first came to Thailand in 2015 knew it was for them. They threw themselves into learning Thai and the future looked rosy. They were delighted when mum moved here too in 2017 along with the couple’s 24 year old daughter who is an English teacher on Koh Samui. 

“We are not totally happy about going to the Philippines. The care will not be so good as in Chiang Mai and the environment is not so good”, added Mrs Davis.

Mrs Padgett will be in Metro Manila – costs are a third of Thailand for her care. 

“We love Thailand and we don’t want her to go but we now have no choice. We have been forced out by the new rules and we may go to live in the Philippines ourselves in the future”. 

They hope that visiting mum will not be too great a drain on their resources.

She noted: “Thailand talks about being a hub for medical care but the immigration rules are just not conducive to that especially in our case.”

She said that costs in the USA were not affordable – a situation that led to Mrs Padgett being relocated to Thailand in the first place.

The family will be flying to Manila at 8 am today..

They hope to all come back one day and live in Thailand – but it may need changes to the immigration rules before that could ever become a possibility. 

Thai Visa

MANY PEOPLE have sought emergency treatment after developing side effects from using marijuana-based medicines, Dr Somsak Akhasilp, director-general of the Department of Medical Services, said on Friday after warning people to beware of the false belief that cannabis can treat any ailment.

“Marijuana can only be used for four illnesses, namely epilepsy among children, nausea and vomiting from chemotherapy, multiple sclerosis, and neuralgia after other medications have failed – and this can only be done under a doctor’s watch. The use of marijuana for other illnesses is still being researched. People cannot simply apply it, as it might negatively react to their current medication,” he warned, adding that cannabidiol (CBD oil) must be from credible and legal sources to ensure a good standard of extraction.

He cited Bangkok’s Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital, which in the past 45 days had seen seven people aged 20 to 60 seeking emergency treatment for symptoms like vomiting, nausea and vertigo after placing a few drops of CBD oil under their tongue or smoking weed to treat their pre-existing conditions.

The patients included a man in his 20s, who used CBD oil to treat his stomach ache and began vomiting, a 35-year-old woman who used CBD oil to treat high-blood pressure and was hit with nausea and vertigo; and a weed smoker who developed stomach ache and nausea.

There was also a 60-year-old monk who applied CBD oil for muscle pain but developed vertigo and partial paralysis; a 45-year-old man with a history of heart disease and high-blood pressure who developed nausea and vertigo the morning after using CBD oil; a bed-ridden cancer patient, 75, who passed out after consuming CBD oil and had to be treated in hospital for two days; and a woman in her late 30s who used CBD oil to treat anxiety and began vomiting.

“There is no system to monitor the side effects of marijuana-based medicines, so I want major hospitals to gather data to see if there has been an increase in such cases,” he said, noting that his own inquiry at some emergency wards showed the cases were rising. Most of the patients had been made to believe by younger relatives or friends that marijuana can treat any ailment.

Dr Teerawat Hemajutha, head of the Information Centre for Emerging Infectious Diseases at Chulalongkorn University’s Faculty of Medicine, said the marijuana-based medical treatments must be brought into the system by the end of this year. Misuse can cause fatal side effects, as well as result in dangerous interaction with the patients’ current medication.

A 28-year-old man recounted his own experience, in which he placed 30 drops of CBD oil instead of following the doctor’s advice to treat insomnia by taking no more than two drops at a time. His overdosing ended in him developing hallucinations, vertigo and seizures.

“Everything was spinning, I saw my child as a skeleton and my wife in double vision,” he recalled, adding he was certain it was the CBD oil because he had never used it before. He added that drinking alcohol or smoking weed years ago had not had such effects.

“It was a horrific experience. I won’t use it again like this, I’ve learnt my lesson,” he said.

Source: The Nation