SONGKHLA — Immigration authorities have broken up a cross-border smuggling operation after arresting 13 African nationals traveling on forged entry stamps, officials said Saturday.
The arrests came after investigators tracked a van carrying nine African passengers to a gas station on Asian Highway Route 2 in Hat Yai district on Friday evening. Four more suspects were later apprehended on a Bangkok-bound bus.
Immigration officers, working with tourist police, detained five Kenyans, two Ugandans, and two Nigerians whose passports bore counterfeit Thai entry stamps. All had entered Thailand illegally through Tak Bai district in neighboring Narathiwat province.
Smuggler Paid in Cryptocurrency
The alleged organizer, 52-year-old Thai national Naserkan, confessed to police he was hired by a Malaysian broker to move the group from the Malaysian border to Bangkok for 4,920 USDT—roughly 175,000 baht in cryptocurrency.
Naserkan told investigators this wasn’t his first job. He’d smuggled African nationals multiple times before and understood the migrants would eventually be transported to Myanmar.
To dodge immigration checks, he had arranged for forged entry stamps through contacts in Tak Bai. When the group reached Songkhla, he split them between a van and a public bus to avoid suspicion.
Coordinated Arrests
After the van was stopped, police quickly alerted immigration officers in Nakhon Si Thammarat province, who intercepted the bus in Cha-uat district and arrested the remaining four passengers.
Naserkan faces charges of harboring illegal immigrants and helping them evade authorities. The 13 foreign nationals are charged with illegal entry, unauthorized residence, and using forged immigration documents.
‘Just Tourists,’ Suspects Claim
Despite the evidence, the detained migrants maintain they’re innocent tourists planning a short visit.
“They’re sticking to their story—claiming they just wanted to tour Thailand for two or three days,” said a senior immigration official, whose full name was not included in the police report.
He praised officers for spotting the fake stamps and coordinating the swift arrests, but ordered investigators to dig deeper into the group’s true intentions, particularly whether they might be trafficking victims rather than willing participants.
“If there are any indicators they’re victims of human trafficking, we must follow National Referral Mechanism protocols strictly,” he said.
The case underscores Thailand’s ongoing struggle with smuggling networks exploiting porous southern borders to move migrants through the country as a transit route to other destinations.
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