1.4 Operational Links Between Thai and Foreign Criminal Networks

1.4

Operational Links between Thai and Foreign Criminal Networks

According to the interviewees, most organized crime in Thailand is masterminded by foreign criminal groups who hire local Thai associates to facilitate their criminal transactions. In this case, Thai middlemen are responsible for organizing transportation, escorting victims, procuring contacts in local black markets, providing fake passports, acting as ‘drug mules’ and local dealers, and facilitating financial transactions. Generally, foreigners rarely have the capacity to operate in Thailand without the complicity of Thai nationals, primarily due to language barriers. However, there are some exceptions to this rule. For example, Russian organized criminal groups (referred to by several interviewees as ‘Russian mafia’) appear to have a consolidated presence in Thailand, which enables them to manage several criminal activities independently in Pattaya and Phuket.

Interestingly, the interviewees also observed another operational pattern which involves Thai and foreign groups managing the trafficking within their own countries and then meeting at the border to coordinate the transfers. Generally, groups that are engaged in trafficking in persons, wildlife and firearms tend to prefer this arrangement. This form of cooperation between local and transnational groups relies on personal contacts among individual brokers. For example, Myanmar nationals may recruit job seekers or collect drugs from local producers and transport them to the border with Thailand, where Thai traffickers then move the people or products through Thailand. Some transfers also originate in Thailand. For example, Thai nationals procure rosewood from local forests and then transport the timber to the Thai-Laos border, where Laotian or Chinese smugglers arrange for the transportation abroad.

On the basis of the interviews, it appears that Thailand might still have a large and robust illegal economy led by influential figures linked together in criminal networks.7 Nevertheless, there is no solid evidence that there is a transnational organized criminal group formed solely by Thai nationals. The experts explained that well-established Thai criminal groups primarily engage in domestic crimes and have a very different structure compared to foreign criminal syndicates (e.g. the Japanese Boryokudan) operating in or through Thailand. So far, there have only been a few detected cases in which Thai nationals were the masterminds in transnational trafficking. These cases include child trafficking in connection with sex tourism in some popular Thai holiday destinations, and trafficking of Thai women to Europe conducted by Thai criminal organizations with the logistical support of local offenders in the destination country (the known cases have involved especially Belgium and the Netherlands).

7 Phongpaichit, P. (1999). Thailand’s Illegal Economy and Public Policy. Seminar paper presented at the Centre of Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto, Japan.

Trajectory of Local

Thai Organized Criminal Groups

Thai organized criminal groups can be divided into two types: traditional and modern. The traditional groups, which are now apparently extinct, included Angyee (Chinese triads) and so-called ‘Bandit’s dens’ (peasant robbers). Modern Thai organized criminal groups are led by individuals who are called ‘persons of influence’ (poo meeitthipon).8

According to the stakeholders interviewed, ‘persons of influence’ rely on strong connections with politicians, government officials, law enforcement officers, businessmen and various actors with social standing.9 These ‘persons of influence’ usually collude with Thai offenders, and seek to influence various levels of government, the legal system and law enforcement. Interestingly, these Thai criminal groups have a more definite and hierarchical structure than most TOC groups, since Thai criminal groups are often highly coordinated at the village, subdistrict, district, provincial and national levels.

Thai offenders leverage this network of influential connections in order to exercise control over territory and the community. For example, according to a 2008 study, in areas dominated by organized criminal enterprises, a person cannot even set up a legal business without dealing with the local crime boss first. And after a new business is established, the crime boss will generally continue to extort that business. Moreover, ‘persons of influence’ also act as fronts for criminal enterprises, where the proceeds of crime are laundered through the legal business before being invested, for example in vote-buying.10

Although this kind of local group may seem more akin to the Italian mafia, there is a key difference between Thai groups and traditional criminal organizations. For example, when the boss passes away, the Thai criminal organization tends to dissolve rather than being taken over by the next person in the hierarchy. Consequently, Thailand does not have many large, long-standing criminal organizations. Instead, the country has mostly small and medium-sized organized criminal groups, usually consisting of three to ten people. These Thai networks coordinate their illegal business in parallel with foreign groups and act as local facilitators for foreign offenders.

8 Tanatthep, T. (2018). Promoting the use of the special investigative techniques of Article 20 of the UNTOC to combat organised crimes in Thailand. University of Aberdeen, 27-47. 9 Roujanavong, W. (2008). Organized Crime in Thailand (pp. 21). Bangkok: Rumthai Press. 10 Ibid., 32.