BANGKOK: The Customs Department has seized goods worth about Bt100 million that were smuggled into the country without the payment of tax.
The goods were found in two trucks in Chachoengsao’s Bang Pakong district.
Banjong Saengpong, 48 and Chan Thinkhamcherd, 45, were arrested as they drove their trucks to Bangkok’s Lat Krabang district, department chief Kulit Sombatsiri said yesterday.
The pair were charged with smuggling goods into the Kingdom with the purpose of avoiding taxes, which is punishable with a fine of four times the goods’ price, plus tax, and/or up to 10 years in prison.
Kulit said the duo confessed to picking up the goods – which included cellphones, car accessories, clothes, bags and sport equipment – from a warehouse in Chachoengsao and were to deliver them to a location in Bangkok’s Rama II area, pending phone instructions.
The department is trying to determine who was behind the smuggling attempt, he said, adding that the goods were sent to Thailand in small amounts and stored at a warehouse in a bid to avoid detection.
Two people of interest are an investor group from the East led by a woman identified only as “Kor” and a group from the Northeast led by a man named Chalee.
