Thai Jail Time for Six Cambodians Riles Cambodia

By Chun Sakada, VOA Khmer
Original report from Phnom Penh
22 February 2010

Foreign Ministry officials say they will protest the sentencing of six Cambodians to two years in jail by a Thai court on Monday.

The defendants, four men and two women, were caught collecting rattan on the wrong side of the border earlier this year.

On Friday, a court in Thailand’s Surin province found them guilty of illegal entry and illegal logging.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Koy Kuong said Monday that neither a lawyer nor the Cambodian consul for Surin province was present at the sentencing, in what he called an “irregular” procedure.

“We must take opposition against the verdict,” he said.

The verdict comes after a Cambodian court sentenced a Thai man to 20 years in prison earlier this month, for attempting to lay landmines along the border.

Cambodia and Thailand are engaged in a protracted border standoff and an ongoing diplomatic row.

In 2009, the Thai provincial courts of Sisaket and Ubon sentenced at least 27 Cambodians from 15 months to 9 years in jail for illegal entry and logging in Thai territory.

In the same year, Cambodia’s Banteay Meanchey provincial court sentenced one Thai to three months for illegal entry into Cambodia, although border guards arrested and released another 42 Thais for alleged illegal entry.

Police Sting Operation Uncovers Khmer Drug Ring Trafficking Yah Bah Into Thailand

May 20, 2008
Pattaya Daily News (Thailand)

A Khmer drug trafficker was caught in an undercover police sting operation, on May 19, 2008, trying to sell 1,000 tabs of Yah Bah, (amphetamine) in Bang Saray. The trafficker was part of a well-established drugs ring with headquarters in Siam Reap, Cambodia and used the border crossing of Baan Laem to get the drugs into Thailand.

The police sting team led by a number of high-ranking officials, including , Pol.Col.Kittiphong Gnao-muk, deputy commander and chief of investigation centre section #2, Pol.Col. Itthiporn Bpo-thong, superintendent section #2, Capt. Chachawan Meesawad, Capt.Siriphan Meelaksan and Capt.Samorabpum Jantho, from the Navy drugs suppression team, along with a military police investigator, set up the Khmer front-man, Mr.Chead, promising to buy the Yah Bah at Bt160 a tablet, with a street retail value of somewhere in the region of Bt160,000. The rendezvous was outside Bangsaray Seafood Restaurant, Moo 4, Bangsaray.

Mr.Chead's controller was an individual by the name of Mr.Li Chea, nicknamed Da (32) from Ji-Klang, Siam Reap province, Cambodia. Following the arrangement to buy the drugs with the undercover police, Mr.Chead contacted Mr.Da to deliver the consignment to the rendezvous.

The police sting team laid in wait for the dealer to arrive and when he did swooped down and arrested him with the incriminating evidence. He later told police that it was a well set up operation where smugglers regularly hid the drugs up their rectums in order to get across the border at Baan Laem, Pong-namron district, Chantaburi province. The six-man trafficking team was subsequently picked up by a blue car and then dropped off individually en route at stipulated drop zones.

Police charged Mr. Da on the double count of smuggling illicit, category 1, drugs, into Thailand to sell and having entered the country illegally.

10 illegal Cambodian workers and their Thai driver arrested in Pattaya

10 Cambodians and Thai Agent arrested in Sattahip

Saturday 2nd February 2008
Pattaya City News (Thailand)

Police from Sattahip were on routine patrol on Friday Night when they spotted a pick-up containing a number of passengers who appeared not to be of Thai Origin. It was decided to pull over the Grey Mazda pick-up which was being driven by Khun Oran aged 45. In the back of the pick-up were 10 Cambodian Nationals, including 2 children. None had passports and one of them who could speak Thai explained that they had paid the driver to bring them from Cambodia to illegally work here in Thailand. Khun Oran was charged with harboring illegal immigrants and the Cambodian Nationals who were on their way to the Samaer San Fishing Port will be deported at the earliest opportunity.

11 Khmer-Islam arrested for entering Thailand illegally

22 November 2007
Excerpt from TNA (Thailand)

Meanwhile, in Sa Kaeo province bordering Cambodia, Thai Army Rangers arrested 11 Muslim-Khmer workers who tried to enter Thailand illegally at the Aranyaprathet border crossing.

According to preliminary investigation, the migrant workers departed from Cambodia's Kampong Cham province and planned to work in fisheries in Thailand's restive Narathiwat.