BANGKOK: Thai authorities Wednesday confiscated a contraband shipment of wild boar meat and three live hornbills valued at more than 1 million baht (U.S. $28,500), in an effort to curb funding of insurgents in southern Thailand by cross-border smuggling rings, an official told BenarNews.
About 50 military, police, customs, forestry and civil officers searched cargo cars of a train at the Pattani railway station in Koke Pho district, which lies in the troubled Thai Deep South near the border with Malaysia. The train was traveling to Bangkok from Su-ngai Kolok, on the border, district chief Swet Petchnui said.
Officers confiscated four tons of board meat, 850 kilos of powdered milk, 150 boxes of instant foods, liquid soap and other goods that were imported illegally from Malaysia. Investigators also found three live hornbills in the shipment.
The items are considered contraband because the ring shipped them without paying proper taxes, he said.
“This shows an example of ‘opportunistic threats’ carried out by an illegal ring,” Swet said.
“The 4th Region Army commander reiterates the need to get rid of this kind of gang as soon as possible to cut off finances, which will make the situation better. We try to arrest the culprits,” he said. Officers did not catch gang members responsible for this load of contraband, Swet added.
“This lot came from Su-ngai Kolok, Narathiwat. The smuggling was carried out at syndicate level,” he said, referring to a neighboring province in the Muslim dominated Deep South.
“Smuggling has been occurring for a long time. Officers try to arrest ‘big fish’ to try to capture more suspects involved,” he added. Swet said the birds were sent to forestry officials. Smugglers fund insurgent attacks: ISOC 4
A Thai military official at Internal Security Operations Command (ISOC) Region 4, which covers the Deep South, told reporters recently that illegal rings finance attacks by armed separatists. About one-fifth of such attacks are related to criminal rings while the rest are directly related to the insurgents’ agenda, he said.
More than 6,700 people have been killed since 2004 in violence linked with the conflict in Thailand’s southern border region. Last week, a soldier and two private security guards were killed and four other people were injured in a flurry of attacks in the region. These brought to 21 the number of people killed in violence there since early September.
“Crime syndicates, be they oil smuggling rings, drugs gangs, deforestation rings, gambling dens, contraband rings, illegal cooperatives, passport forgery gangs for migrants who supported Uyghur migrants, took part in supporting the insurgents all along,” said Col. Jatuporn Galumpasut, who is based in Pattani province.
He said that between 500 million and 1 billion baht ($14.2 million and $28.5 million) in cash was circulating in the region each month through criminal-related activities such as smuggling. This money funds 80 percent of violence associated with local insurgent groups. The remaining 20 percent of the violence is caused by illegal rings, he said.
“Since 2011, we have arrested crime rings linked to insurgents. Oil smuggling generates 200 million baht ($5.7 million) per month, contraband 300 million baht ($8.5 million), drugs 200 million baht ($5.7 million) and others, totaling some billion baht ($28.5 million) or more per month,” Jatuporn said.
