NONG KHAI - A man was arrested at the customs checkpoint of the Thai-Lao Friendship bridge while attempting to smuggle a small tank of nitrogen containing frozen human semen into Laos on Thursday.
The man was identified as Nithinon Srithaniyanan, 25, of Bangkok's Phayathai district.
Nimit Saeng-ampai, chief of the Nong Khai customs, said Mr Nithinon had been under watch because he travelled frequently to and from Laos through the Nong Khai immigration checkpoint in Muang district. Every time, he carried a large suitcase.
On Thursday, as Mr Nithinon was about to cross over the bridge to Laos, he was stopped for a bag examination. The customs officials found in it a tank of nitrogen containing six vials of human semen.
He admitted he was taking the semen to a clinic in Vientiane. He said the semen was from two men, one a Chinese national and the other a Vietnamese national.
Mr Nithinon was charged with violating the law on medical breeding technology, which prohibits the sale, import or export of semen, eggs or embryos. Violators are liable to a jail term of up to three years and/or a fine of up 60,000 baht.
Smuggling of the items out of the country also violated the Customs Act, Mr Nimit said.
Mr Nithinon allegedly told customs officials he had been hired 12 times in the last year by a Thai-Japanese man called "Yu" to deliver a nitrogen tank containing semen, eggs or embryos from four clinics in Bangkok - Jetanin, Superior ART, First and I-Baby - to VIP Clinic in Vientiane, Laos.
He had also made 13 deliveries of similar tanks from the clinics in Bangkok to a hospital and a clinic in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, via Aranyaprathet, in 2016.
He said he was paid 5,000 baht for each delivery.