The suspects also confessed to hiring people for Bt1,000 to Bt2,000 to open bank accounts for transactions, he said. They had been charged with forgery, and may face additional counts for racketeering and money laundering.

Police were in talks with Thailand Post Co to procure devices to scan for illegal items in parcels before deliveries as an increasing number of cases showed contraband being sent by post, he said.

The suspects – identified as Supachai Chainit, 20, Jittima Inberd, 26, Suriya Khamsongsi, 31, Prapatsorn Sairat, 24, Sathan Rodpan, 44, and Nithipat Jaidee, 52 – were later transferred to Phayathai Police Station in Bangkok for further legal action.

Surachet said the suspects’ arrest stemmed from the arrest on May 12 of Nithipat and Sathan at a copy shop in Samut Sakhon’s Muang district. They allegedly provided forged documents such as education diplomas, police identification cards and gun possession permits to customers who posted orders online and received forged documents via the post.

Police then widened the net to arrest their accomplices.

Nithipat, who confessed to being the shop owner, told police he learned how to forge documents from the Internet, notably from YouTube videos, while Sathan gave him customers’ orders. Police found that Sathan received job orders from Suriya and used the bank account of his girlfriend Prapatsorn to receive payments.

Suriya was found to took forgery orders from a Line user identified as Akara, who used a bank account under Supachai’s name to wire money to Suriya via a bank account under Jittima’s name.

Surachet warned the public about crimi?nals hiring others to open bank accounts and obtain ATM cards for illegal transactions and withdrawals, saying it could land people whose names were on the accounts in trouble for abetting a crime.

“It’s certainly not worth the Bt1,000 to Bt2,000 they are paid for to open the accounts,” he said.