Thai Crime for November 26th, 2020: Spirit doctor can't solve murder; drug syndicate worth billions taken down; Thai romance scam bites the dust
Call the Fish Doctor if something happens to me!
Thai Shaman Calls on Dead Spirit to Find Killer
If something happens to me, call the Fish Doctor.
When: November 11th, 2020
Where: Wang Chan sub district, Kaeng Krachan district, Phetchaburi province
Perpetrator: unknown
Victims: Ms. Kanya Phakchatthong, 46 years
What: Ms. Phakchatthong, a former karaoke waitress, was found dead, her body burned and "charred like charcoal." The killer remained a mystery until the supernatural got involved.
Enter one Mhor Pla (หมอปลา, literally "fish doctor"), an infamous Ajarn character with a reputation. Many in Thailand following Mhor Pla for his uncanny ability to contact the dead, especially as it relates to unsolved murders.
Mhor Pla showed up to the location where Ms. Phakchatthong's burned body was found. He met the deceased's mother there with the intent to solve the crime. Mhor Pla tried contacted the deceased through his medium abilities but fell short. He didn't come back from the spirit world empty handed, however. He told the mother frankly that there was only one killer and that the woman was murdered in another location but burned here to conceal the crime.
The killer remains on the loose.
My take: There are two ways to look at this. The first is that there may be a certain solace for the deceased's relatives to call on spiritual guidance in an attempt to reconcile their grief. Perhaps this would be the bargaining stage of grief. But it's a whole other matter to put on a show and exploit the emotions of those left in the wake of a brutal and particularly heinous murder. At the end of the day, I'm agnostic to these sorts of things. Let's hope real detectives get in there and mete out justice and serve it cold to the killer.
Link: https://www.ejan.co/news/5fab4b9b045bd
300 Million Baht Seized from Drug Kingpins; Syndicate Realized Billions in Revenue Before the Take Down
The money up for grabs is too alluring for the law to win the long game.
When: November 25th, 2020
Where: Minburi district, Bangkok province
Perpetrator: 13 Thai drug smugglers
Victims: A lawful society
What: The drug empire that Mr. Thapanan Thammarathada (nickname Noochen) and Mrs. Lin Charlie built has crumbled. They weren't household names. But the pair ran a syndicate that profited billions of baht over the past 2 years. The raid on a wood factor in Minburi on November 25th turned up 3.2 million dollars cash in USD (roughly 96 million baht), 30 million baht in a Thai bank account, 2 houses in Thailand, lumber, and 2 cars. The other cash is long gone, the billions already wired off to banks in Myanmar.
The pair ran a sophisticated drug smuggling and money laundering operation. Police have arrested 13 in their network already. The investigators were working from a tip from an arrest and seizure of 1,500 kilos of ice back in October 2019.
My take: When there's that much money to be had, there's gonna be somebody else to fill these shoes. This isn't the townie pot dealer you probably knew growing up that we're talking about here. The drug networks in Asia run a tight and smart operation that nets billions of dollars. This small syndicate popped off with billions of baht before the take down. Try to wrap your head around that.
Link: https://www.thaipost.net/main/category/24
Gang of 9 Thai Women Busted for Romance Scam
The scam raked in 10 million baht in 3 short months. A quick buck, sure. Now it's off to jail.
When: November 26th, 2020
Where: Khon Kaen
Perpetrator: 9 Thai women; several African scammers
Victims: Several lonely souls
What: Police busted 4 women in Thailand today for their involvement in a sophisticated and profitable romance scam. After further investigation police turned up 5 more Thai women involved in the operation, several who live in Malaysia. The investigation also turned up African scammers who ran the operation from abroad.
The scheme netted the gang over 10 million baht in ill-gotten cash just since September of this year. Their set up was simple. The Thai girls chatted up other desperate Thais while pretending to be a foreign man or woman. A rendezvous date would be set up with the mark in Thailand. On the date of the meeting, the scammer would call up the mark and say they were detained at the immigration checkpoint, and they needed a cash transfer. The promise would be that the money would be refunded when they met up.
The screw twisted tighter when another scammer, now pretending to be an officer, would call the mark and tell them if the money's not transferred, their detained lover would be tossed in jail. The money often came through shortly after.
My take: We always read about scams like this and think, "that'd never be me!" But yet the scams continue and at a profitable clip. Let's be frank. 10 million baht in 3 months is nothing to shake a stick at, especially for a group of 9 Thai women and a few Africans in Malaysia.
But it just makes me think. The whole scam is like rubbing salt in the wounds of those lonely souls who are the most prone for falling for something like this. I don't abide scammers, and I think the Thai justice system should throw the book at these crooks.