Police are targeting gangs allegedly smuggling luxury cars from Malaysia into Thailand and avoiding police inspections here by attaching state agency stickers to the vehicles.
Tosak: Dodgy car buyers face charges
The move, led by the Crime Suppression Division (CSD), follows the seizure of nine luxury vehicles from a second-hand car businessman last week.
He had parked them at two houses in Soi Phatthanawet 12 off Sukhumvit Road in Bangkok, drawing the attention of locals, said the CSD's special operation acting chief Pol Lt Col Tosak Sukwimon, who led the mission.
Police suspect the cars were brought into Thailand without going through customs procedures, and were waiting for fake registration licences before being sold as second-hand luxury cars.
They confiscated a Lexus RX370, BMW 370 LD, Mercedes Benz and Nissan Fairlady, among others. Their total value was put at more than 30 million baht.
Earlier the officers were granted a search warrant from the Bangkok South Criminal Court to inspect the houses after they heard the luxury cars had been left parked on the road.
"We found the cars are not registered with the Land Transport Department and there were no import documents at all," Pol Lt Col Tosak said.
The cars, once sold on the market, could have made a profit of 500,000 baht to 800,000 baht each, he said.
But this profit is made at great cost to the country in terms of the millions of baht in taxes lost on each smuggled car.
Scams to avoid customs officials at border checkpoints are growing more sophisticated, making it harder to bring the perpetrators to justice.
Police believe Malaysian gangsters are behind the vehicle smuggling racket.
They allegedly bought the cars in Malaysia, gained legal registration numbers from the authorities, took out insurance, and drove the cars to Thailand.
Officials at border checkpoints could not find any irregularities with the cars. But once in Thailand, the gangs start the illegal part of their scam.
Thai brokers buy the cars and change their registration plates into Thai ones.
They drive them to Bangkok, using Phetkasem Road, the main highway from the South, and along the minor roads in some provinces to avoid highway police, the source said.
If the gangsters had to drive past checkpoints, they have a second plan to avoid inspection.
They stuck insignia stickers from the Office of the Attorney-General and police agencies on their windshields to ward off police, said Pol Lt Col Tosak.
It is well known that drivers who have such stickers are politicians, high-ranking officials or associates of powerful figures.
Checkpoint police usually do not conduct inspections of these cars because they fear they will get into trouble, he said.
Once the luxury cars arrived in Bangkok, they were parked at private houses, waiting for their vehicle registration numbers to be "laundered" to make them legal and ready for sale in the second-hand car market.
If motorists later buy the cars and finance companies grant loans to the buyers, the cars are double-guaranteed as legal vehicles, making it more difficult for police to detect irregularities.
Police say it is better to act now against members of the smuggling gang, to stop them going any further with their plans.
The CSD is asking the Central Investigation Bureau's officers who deal with transnational crimes to work with Malaysian police in checking how the cars were bought in their country.
Thai police believe the cars were legally bought in Malaysia.
After the cars are sold in Thailand, the gangsters are thought to complain to insurance companies that they have lost their cars here, so they can claim compensation over there, the source added.
"Initially the culprits are likely to face charges of using fake vehicle registration documents and official insignia stickers," Pol Lt Col Tosak said.
He also asked luxury-car buyers to help police by checking the registration numbers with the Land Transport Department and avoiding vehicles if their prices look unusually low, as they may have dodgy origins.
"Buyers who go ahead with such purchases may face charges and their cars could be seized," Pol Lt Col Tosak warned.
Contact Crime Track: crimetrack@bangkokpost.co.th