The vehicle was found in the possession of Sompong Champa and Jakrapob Leenatham in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, who were planning to sell the vehicle.

An undercover police operation led to the arrest of both men.

Jakrapob told police that he bought the pickup from a man whose identity is being withheld for now to ensure the ongoing police investigation would not be affected.

“I bought it at Bt90,000 and I planned to sell it at Bt125,000,” Jakrapob said.

Deputy Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol Maj-General Panurat Lakboon said on Thursday that Jakrapob had operated vehicle-mortgage services in Thailand’s South.

“He is a major operator in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Surat Thani,” said Panurat.

Pickup owner Suwat Janso lodged a complaint with police that his Isuzu truck was stolen on April 6 from Samut Prakan’s Bang Phli district.

Security cameras captured the theft, and recordings were uploaded on social media.

The Bang Phli Police Station contacted the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s car-theft suppression division to ask for help.

The division soon found a photo of the stolen vehicle in a sales advertisement.

Police then arranged an undercover operation, with agents acting as buyers to approach the suspects.

During the past two months, the Metropolitan Police Bureau’s car-theft suppression division has successfully retrieved several stolen vehicles including a Mercedes-Benz and a BMW.

Deputy national police chief Pol General Srivara Rangsibhramanakul said on Thursday that while prostitution is legal in Germany sex workers have to have a work permit.

Srivara said he had already assigned the Foreign Affairs and AntiHuman Trafficking divisions to seek more information about Wednesday’s nationwide raids.

The divisions were also ordered to examine all aspects to know who was involved in the racket. The guilty people would certainly be severely punished, Srivara said.

Meanwhile, Pol General Thammasak Witchayara, chairman of the subcommittee on anti-transnational human trafficking, said the Thai side would contact Germany to know details about the crackdown.

Thai and German police have been cooperating in tackling human trafficking, Thammasak said, adding his side is considering sending police officers to Germany as some Thais were detained in the case.

It is not yet known how many Thais have been detained in the crackdown, which involved a record 15,000 officers raiding more than 60 brothels and flats in 12 of Germany’s 16 states. Prosecutors have 56 suspects in their sights, 41 of them women.

Among the arrested were seven people suspected of having been leaders in the ring, one of them a 59-year-old Thai woman who was identified as leader of the crime network that smuggled Thai women and transsexuals to Germany with fraudulent visas for forced prostitution.

The woman and her 62yearold German partner were taken into custody on outstanding arrest warrants. The rest of the detainees could be treated as victims.

The women brought to Germany “had to hand over 100 per cent of their wages to the operators of the respective ‘massage parlours’ to pay off their smuggling fee”, ranging from 16,000 euros (Bt640,000) to 36,000 euros, AFP quoted Alexander Badle, spokesman for the Frankfurt prosecutor’s office, as saying. He said that other than human trafficking, forced prostitution, procurement and embezzlement of wages, the ring leaders also face charges of tax evasion.

Some of the suspects could face up to 15 years in prison.

Germany’s Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said that several hundred women and men were at the mercy of the inhumane, boundless greed of human smugglers for years and across borders.

He said that while the Thai victims were aware that they were being taken to German brothels, they were duped about the “conditions, including the fact that they would receive virtually no remuneration”.

They were brought to Europe on tourist visas that explicitly prohibited work, and spoke no German, leaving them particularly vulnerable to exploitation, Badle added.

He said immigration authorities would now examine the victims’ legal status to determine how long they could stay in Germany.

The drug users accounted for around 7 per cent of the 182,910 men who showed up for the conscription call this year, he said.

Last year saw 30,089 men test positive for drugs, which was 7.9 per cent of those who turned up for conscription.

Kalasin province – at 678 – reported the highest number of people testing positive, followed by Narathiwat (609) and Songkhla (592).

A majority of the men who failed the test – 11,139 – were found to have taken yaba pills with another 750 testing positive for marijuana use.

The 3,128 men, hired by the Army, who tested positive would join a drug rehabilitation programme during the first phase of their two-year military training and service at their respective boot camps, Sirinya said.

Those who tested positive for drugs but were rejected for service would have their information recorded by the ONCB and respective Army regions. They will undergo a 13-day drug rehabilitation programme by the end of this month.

Those volunteering to join a drug rehabilitation programme in their areas, and who are approved by the central hospital’s drug-screening centre, will not be prosecuted under the criminal code or registered with criminal records, said Sirinya, citing Order No 108 of the National Council for Peace and Order that categorises drug users as patients in need of treatment.

On the other hand, those who failed to volunteer (by not showing up to register for the rehabilitation) and failed to get an approval from the central hospital’s drug-screening centre will be forced to participate in the Probation Department’s drug rehabilitation programme. Only when they have passed the programme and not repeated the offence, would their names be deleted from the authority’s drug addicts list, Sirinya said.

The ONCB also tested those registered personnel known as “Thahan Kongkern” from April 1-12, with results due for release today, Sirinya said.

Thahan Kongkern are Thai men aged 18-30 who would ordinarily be required to attend the annual conscription draw at age 21, or those who had asked for postponement up to age 26, or those who drew the “black card” in the conscription draw and thus avoided recruitment.

The Thahan Kongkern status ends when the men reached the age of 30, after which they become “Thahan Kongnoon” – organised military reserves.

Conscripts who have completed their two-year service in the military also become Thahan Kongnoon.

Maj Gen Piyapong Klinphan was responding to a video posted online the day before showing Saksit Srisunthorn in tears because he has to enter military service and “abandon” his grandmother.

Army chief Gen Chalermchai Sitthisart and First Army Area Commander Lt Gen Kukiart Srinakha both saw the video and instructed officials in charge of the draft to see what could be done.

Another Army officer posted the video on Facebook as “Art Tua Por”. Showing the then-unidentified conscript breaking down and requiring assistance to sign draft documents, the clip was viewed more than 2.4 million times in less than 24 hours.

The posting officer explained that the conscript was worried that, with him in the armed forces, his ailing 75-year-old grandma had no one to take care of her.

Piyapong said the conscript had subsequently been identified as Saksit, a resident of Bangkok’s Phasi Charoen district.

Piyapong said Saksit waived his right to delay entry into the military and drew a red card in the conscription lottery, meaning he will begin his two-year hitch at the 11th Army Circle on Rama V Road in Dusit district on November 1.

It was confirmed that Saksit is his family’s primary breadwinner and takes care of his grandma and two middle-aged aunts – one of whom is also ailing – as well as a teenage nephew attending school.

Piyapong promised that both Saksit and his grandmother would be taken care of well.

Army spokesman Col Winthai Suvaree added that, if necessary, Saksit could take leave from duty to attend to his grandma.

Prachuap Khiri Khan deputy governor Chotnarin Kerdsom confirmed that the Norwegian tourist was bitten by a bull shark while he was swimming at Sai Noi beach, southern Hua Hin, and the authorities had decided to impose measures to prevent further incidents.

These measures included installing multilingual shark warning signs on the beaches and dispatching more officers to ensure tourist safety, while the tourists were cautioned to avoid wearing colourful clothing in the sea and advised not to swim too far from the coast, swim alone or enter cloudy water.

However, fisheries expert Tassaphon Krachangdara noted that normally bull shark is not an aggressive animal and from an inspection of the bite wounds on the tourist’s foot, it was clear the shark bit him because it thought his foot was a fish.

Therefore, he suggested that the authorities should simply set up the warning signs for tourists and a install shark prevention net at the beach in order to prevent more cases of bites because of “misunderstandings”.

Leading marine biologist Thon Thamrongnawasawat said the chance of a shark attack was one in 2 million, while a fatal shark attack was even less likely. Globally there were around two people killed by shark attacks per year.

“Statistically, we have higher chance to be killed by bees, more than shark, as there are around 2,000 people killed every year from bee attacks,” Thon said.

Rather than unreasonably fearing sharks, visitors should instead be careful of more realistic dangers such as injury by boats, getting stung by sea urchins or poisonous jellyfish.

IN A rare admission, Thai security tzar Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said yesterday there was a possibility that the Islamic State (IS) was trying to establish a cell in the country.

His remarks follow a report that Malaysian authorities were hunting for a Narathiwat native, suspected to be the mastermind of an extremist group. “There could be an attempt to come to Thailand but we are ready to defend ourselves,” Prawit said. “Like in other countries, they might try to set up a cell in Thailand but we can prevent that.”

The Malaysian report said that four IS members, suspected of planning attacks on non-Muslim places of worship, had fled to the deep South. Three of them were Malaysians and one a Thai national.

Two of the suspects were Muhamad Faizal Muhamad Hanafi and Muhamad Hanafi Yah, both from Kelantan state in Malaysia. A third suspect is Nor Farkhan Mohd Isa, whose address was given as Taman Ungku Tun Aminah in Skudai, southern Johor, according to The Straits Times.

The Thai suspect – Awae Wae-Eya – reportedly lives in the southernmost Narathiwat province, one of the violence hotspots.

Media reports earlier said that six members of the IS cell had been arrested between February 27 and March 1. But four others were still on the run. Malaysia Police said the men were “dangerous” and “capable of launching attacks that could pose a threat to national security”.

Intelligence circles in Malaysia said they believe Awae is the group’s mastermind, based on interrogation of the six men arrested, and that he is trying to establish an IS cell in southern Thailand.

However, Thai security authorities yesterday tried to play down the threat, saying Awae was just a self-promoting figure who loved to claim linkage with IS to get attention in social media.

“He is unemployed, an Internet troll but definitely has no connection with IS,” the spokesman of Internal Security Operations Command (Isoc), Pramot Promin, said. Awae’s record is quite clean, as he has never been involved in any violent incidents in the deep South, Pramot said. The Isoc forward command has already reported to the Fourth Army Region Commander Lt-General Piyawat Nakwanich about the man, he said.

Thai authorities would collaborate with Malaysia to compare intelligence information about the movement of militants on the ground, Pramot said.

National police chief Chakthip Chaijinda said police were investigating the case and have regularly exchan-ged information with Malaysian counterparts. Southeast Asia has been dreading the growth of IS cells. IS is reported to have some cells and key figures operating in the region and the group is know to have recruited many fighters from Southeast Asia.

Scholar Srisompob Jitpiromsri from Prince of Songkla University, Pattani Campus, said based on his study there was no solid evidence to prove any move to create or of the presence of an IS cell in the deep South. The nature and ideologies of IS and militants in the South are different, he said.

“Some individual insurgents in the South might be inspired by ISIS, but there is no solid connection with the extremist groups,” he said.

THE FOUNDATION for Consumers has urged the government to enact legislation for data privacy protection to safeguard customers’ personal data from being leaked and abused by the private sector and cybercriminals.

Saree Aongsomwang, the foundation’s secretary-general, said the latest data security issue faced by TrueMove H, one of the country’s three major mobile-phone operators, serves as a reminder that consumers’ personal data, such as ID card photos and 13-digit number, must be protected by law.

She cited the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) as an example that should be adopted by Thailand, as there are strong preventive measures for data security such as a heavy fine on companies whose databases are leaked.

The EU’s GDPR, which will be effective on May 25, also bars companies from taking personal data of EU citizens overseas, while specific consent must be given by owners of personal data before the data can be used.

Thailand’s National Broadcasting and Telecom Commission (NBTC) on Tuesday summoned executives of TrueMove H for questioning following reports that the personal data of about 14,000 customers kept by the mobile phone operator was possibly compromised over the past 2-3 years while being stored on the cloud facility of Amazon Web Service.

NBTC yesterday issued an order for TrueMove H to take several preventive and other related measures to protect public interests and ensure that the possible data leak would not happen again.

The mobile-phone operator is required to increase the security precautions on customers’ personal data used in the registration of SIM cards.

The security arrangement also has to be audited by cybersecurity specialists to ensure that it is up to date with the fast-changing technology in this area.

Second, the firm has to provide channels for consumers whose data might have been compromised, to check the security of their personal data with no additional expenses paid.

Third, the firm has to take responsibility for potential damage to customers, in accordance with criminal and civil laws.

Fourth, the firm is required to report its actions on these measures to the NBTC within the next seven days.

Unless the firm abides by this order, the NBTC said it would impose a heavy fine of Bt20,000 per day.

Meanwhile, the Foundation for Consumers also criticised the NBTC’s insufficient action against mobile-phone operators whose SMS services are predatory.

Due to numerous complaints about unsolicited SMS services, the foundation said the NBTC should not have allowed operators to pass on the burden of rejecting SMS paying services to consumers.

According to the foundation, mobile-phone operators have flooded their subscribers with paying SMS services, which are unsolicited and would end without expense only when customers press no after receiving the messages. Otherwise, the customers will be charged automatically.

However, many consumers, especially older persons, are not aware of the trick and often miss the chance.

This has resulted in additional charges while these consumers do not want the services.

This year also saw a higher number of injured people with 3,897 cases in 3,724 road accidents. Last year, 3,808 people were injured in 3,690 road crashes.

Most of the road carnage this Songkran stemmed from drunk-driving (40 per cent) and speeding (26 per cent) and 80 per cent of accidents involved motorcycles and 65 per cent took place on straight roads, Deputy Interior Minister Suthee Makboon told the media.

During the seven-day monitoring period (April 11-17), Nakhon Ratchasima, the “gateway to the Northeast”, reported the highest accumulated death toll (20) while the northern province of Chiang Mai had the highest number of injured (142) and accidents (133), he said. Only Ranong, Samut Songkhram, Nong Khai and Nong Bua Lamphu reported no road accident deaths during Songkran, he added.

On Tuesday alone, there were 307 accidents that killed 26 people and wounded 336 others. Speeding was blamed for 28 per cent of accidents, drunk driving for 26 per cent and suddenly cutting in front of another vehicle for 19 per cent.

On Tuesday, officers manning 2,029 checkpoints nationwide arrested 146,589 motorists; 39,572 motorcyclists and their passengers for not wearing crash helmets and 37,779 people for not having a driver’s licence.

Meanwhile, the number of vehicles seized from drunk drivers during this Songkran–16,288 – was a 100 per cent increase over the previous Songkran, National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) and Army deputy spokeswoman Colonel Sirichan Ngathong told a separate press conference yesterday.

The NCPO and related authorities, from April 11-17, had identified 490,512 cases of drunk driving (280,631 motorcyclists and 208,881 motorists), down 38 per cent from the previous year, she said.

As many violators were slapped with fines and their driving licences confiscated, the officers also impounded 16,288 vehicles (11,768 motorcycles and 4,520 cars/trucks) from such drunk drivers. During the previous Songkran, 8,128 vehicles were impounded, she said.

In a mean time, national police deputy chief Pol General Chalermkiat Srivorakan said 8,348 houses nationwide had joined the vacation home-watch scheme for April 11-17 and none of those houses had any instances of theft. So far owners of 6,598 houses had returned from vacation.

He said the number of participating houses this Songkran was a 40.8 per cent increase, or 2,421 houses more than those that participated in the scheme last Songkran. The police smartphone application “Police I lert U” was downloaded 29,576 times during April 4-15, bringing the total app download to 354,566 times, he said although only 134 users alerted police of emergency/crimes using the app.

During April 11-17, a total of 213 crimes to life or bodily injury took place and suspects were apprehended in 125 cases. Of these crimes, 100 cases were about physical assault and 72 suspects were apprehended for 47 such physical assault cases. There were nine murder cases and police had arrested the suspects, he added. A total of 422 crimes targeting assets took place – in 227 cases police nabbed the suspects.

This week marked two sad anniversaries – the disappearance of land rights activists Billy and Den Khamlae. Investigation into their disappearance has hardly made any progress and no one has been punished for what are widely believed to be cases of enforced disappearance.

Billy went missing four years ago after being arrested by Kaeng Krachan National Park officials on Tuesday, while Den, a prominent land rights activist from Chaiyaphum province, has been missing for two years.

UN Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia, Amnesty International, and the International Commission for Jurists (ICJ) released statements this week calling Thai authorities to progressively work on Billy’s enforced disappearance case. All three international human rights organisations highlighted the lack of concrete developments in the investigation into this case four years after Billy went missing.

The three organisations also called for the establishment of legislative measures such as enactment of Prevention and Suppression of Torture and Enforced Disappearance Act and ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and to remedy the victims.

The UN Human Rights Office for Southeast Asia raised concerns over the lack of progress in the investigation into Billy’s enforced disappearance case. Billy’s wife Pinnapa Prueksaphan had submitted her petition to the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) in 2015, but the DSI took up to two years to dismiss her petition, while the investigation against the concerned park official by the Public Sector Anti-Corruption Commission was also long overdue.

“The disappearance of Billy remains an emblematic case in Thailand as it highlights the myriad challenges faced by victims of enforced disappearances, notably the lack of transparency in the investigative process”, said Cynthia Veliko, Regional Representative of the UN Human Rights Office.

The ICJ also said in its statement that to date no progress had been made to establish the fate of Billy and the DSI has declined to take up the matter. The agency urged the DSI to assume its responsibility and effectively investigate the case.

According to the ICJ, Pinnapa was pursuing her efforts to have the DSI investigate her husband’s case. She sent a letter to the DSI director-general earlier this month seeking an answer on why the DSI had not accepted Billy’s case.

However, the DSI released a statement defending itself against the accusations of inaction by international human rights agencies. The DSI said it had not rejected the petition to investigate Billy’s case, but it was working on the procedure to accept this case.

Meanwhile, the Northeastern Region Land Rights Reform Network said that investigation officers had finally concluded that Den had died from unknown circumstances after he went missing in the forest two years ago.

The network also said that there was no investigation to establish the cause of Den’s death or finding those who were responsible for his death, while Den’s wife, Suphap Khamlae, has to live in hardship and fight several lawsuits to ensure her land rights.

Three procurers received over 100 years behind bars – first defendant Piyawan Sukmak, 27, got a 167-year jail term, second defendant Piyathas Parpthiensuwan, 31, got a 176-year jail term and third defendant former cop Pol Senior Sgt-Major Yutthachai Thongchat, 43, got a 320-year jail term.

The three, however, would serve only 50 years behind bars each as the law limits maximum penalty in criminal cases to 50 years in prison.

The fourth defendant Mongkol Kiatpakdipong, 31, was given 19 years, the fifth defendant Pattamaporn In-kaew, 32, got 12 years, the sixth defendant Kanokwan Rattanapakdi, 23, got eight years, the seventh defendant Kwanhathai Reuk-Udom, 40, got 32 years and the eighth defendant Kalaya Wutthikhun, 41, got 36 years.

The eight convicts later sought release on bail pending their appeal to the upper court. During the trial, three of the suspects – Piyawan, Piyathas and Yutthachai – were denied bail and were detained at remand facilities, while the others got bail.

Yutthachai had worked at the Nam Piang Din Police Station until the scandal broke last year, following which he was sacked along with eight other cops in the province who were put under serious disciplinary investigation after being implicated as customers of underage prostitution services.

The case came to light because the 43-year-old mother of one of the teenage victims filed a police complaint. She remained persistent even when there was a lack of progress in the investigations for six months. She then exposed the prostitution racket to the media.

Many state officials were subsequently implicated for buying sex services from the racket’s girls, many of whom reportedly had owl identification tattoos on the chest.

Provincial Governor Suebsak Iamvijarn, who was transferred to an inactive post in Bangkok pending a probe result into the allegation, was later reinstated after he was cleared of any wrongdoing. According to police, one of five Nonthaburi politicians who allegedly bought sex from the girls had drunkenly claimed to be Suebsak.