SONGKHLA — 15 October 2026, Immigration police have arrested a 34-year-old former airline flight attendant, identified only as Pan, over allegations she helped foreign nationals enter and leave Thailand illegally.
Police said Pan, a Chinese national, was arrested at a hotel in central Hat Yai on Wednesday along with four other suspects.
Officers said they had learned that two Chinese nationals had crossed into Thailand from Malaysia through an informal border route in Narathiwat and were staying at the hotel before travelling onwards. Pan allegedly arrived by hired car to collect the pair and take them to Bangkok.
The two men, identified only as Huang and Hwang, allegedly told officers they had entered Thailand through a natural border crossing. Police said Pan had been instructed to collect them and provide them with passports for the journey to Bangkok.
In a related operation, police said Pan had earlier taken a 25-year-old woman identified as Mila, described as a Vanuatu national, to Hat Yai airport, where she was to be handed to another broker and allegedly taken to Malaysia.
Police followed the vehicle collecting Mila and alerted officers at the Padang Besar immigration checkpoint, where it was stopped. A 39-year-old Thai driver, identified only as Isra, was arrested after officers found Mila hiding under clothes on the back seat, police said.
Mila initially claimed to have entered Thailand legally and showed officers an image of travel documents belonging to a similar-looking friend, according to police. Officers said they determined that the documents did not belong to her.
Pan and Isra were charged with assisting or sheltering foreign nationals who had entered Thailand illegally to help them avoid arrest. The three foreign nationals were charged with entering and remaining in Thailand without permission.
Police said the five suspects comprised three Chinese nationals, one Thai national and one person described as a Vanuatu national.
During questioning, police said Pan told them she had previously worked as a flight attendant for an airline in China before leaving to study in Thailand. They alleged that she later coordinated travel for Chinese nationals seeking to enter and leave Thailand through both legal and illegal routes.
Police said they were investigating possible links to a nationality-document trafficking network. They alleged that Mr Hwang was found with a second Mexican passport and that Mila was in fact a Chinese national. Officers also said they found images of several Vanuatu passports held by Chinese nationals on Pan’s phone.
The investigation is ongoing.
