Thai immigration police in the northeastern province of Nong Khai seized 13 computer notebooks, 19 smart phones and four Wi-Fi boosters after they stopped a car and arrested four Chinese nationals and a Thai driver at an intersection in Muang district on Tuesday evening.
Police said that the four Chinese men crossed the Mekong River by boat and illegally entered Nong Khai province from Laos with the help of a human trafficking gang. They were then picked up by a car at a rendezvous point on the Thai side of the river for a journey to Wang Thong district in Phitsanulok via Udon Thani.
The Thai driver, only identified as ‘Udom’, is reported to have told the immigration police that he was contacted by a man, identified only as ‘Ton’, asking him to pick up the four Chinese nationals, at a location by the Mekong River on Tuesday evening, and to take them to Phitsanulok in return for 24,000 baht, to be paid after their safe arrival at their destination.
One of the Chinese, identified as Xiang Hao, reportedly told the Thai police that he had been working at a construction site in Laos for about 5 months and had not been paid yet, adding that a Chinese man had approached him with an offer to carry some luggage, containing notebooks and smart phones, across the border in return for 10,000 yuan.
The four Chinese nationals have been charged with illegal entry and contraband smuggling, while their driver has been charged with abetting the Chinese in entering the country illegally.
