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Police drug raids attract a lot of attention, but result in few if any arrests

Published: 9/01/2011 at 03:34 AM
Newspaper section: Spectrum

A new "war on drugs" may well have started 10 days ago when 100 drug officers and immigration officials swooped in on Nana's Soi Africa in a military-style operation. At 9.40pm, police vehicles blocked off the entrances to Sukhumvit Soi 3 to prevent anyone entering or leaving.

UNDER ARREST: Immigration officers take suspects away for further investigation.

Dozens of plain-clothes police officers wearing black bullet-proof vests swarmed into the area and stormed the narrow street filled mainly with men identified as being from West Africa standing and talking in groups. They also raided hotels, shops and entertainment places.

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About the author

: Writer: Maxmilian Wechsler; Position: Freelance writer

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negrowest
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Discussion 37 : 19/04/2011 at 12:59 PM37
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for to fight drug in thailand 1st fight the corruption in thai police force........
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negrowest
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Discussion 36 : 19/04/2011 at 12:32 PM36
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Pol Col Chatchai also said their behaviour was aggressive when compared to other nationals, and they often shouted and spoke aggressively to people. ''We have to control them and not allow them to behave like that in our country. They don't have any manners. People from the Middle East and Europeans are polite and nice to our women but not the West Africans. They will insult and abuse them,'' he said

I am sorry but that sound Racist......
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ernest
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Discussion 35 : 16/01/2011 at 03:24 PM35
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We are all being decieved here. Africans are not the problem in Thailand. We have seen situations where the westerners emphasize on Africans in order to hide their real mission. Most of them are here for one form of sex tourism or the other. Drug dealings and Paedophile cases which do you prefer? Any reasonable person will agree that it is worst of it all to fed on vulnerable kids. In all I do not support the both.
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penchristy
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Discussion 34 : 15/01/2011 at 05:25 PM34
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Social Injustice arises when equals are treated unequally and unequal are treated equally
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penchristy
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Discussion 33 : 15/01/2011 at 05:24 PM33
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please thai police officers should not be using racist words to address one particlur race.
One thing i knows is that all the foreigners commit clims in thailand.But i can see that Bp is just propaganda media.

Be sincere to people,How many thai drug lords have you people put his videos online and how mnay farang have you done the same.why only africans?It sounds odd.

Equal right and justice.Social Injustice arises when equals are treated unequally and unequal are treated equally

Publish it of you wish to.if you don't want to.delete it as you have been deleting all my comment.
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lek
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Discussion 32 : 15/01/2011 at 10:35 AM32
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"Many called spouses and friends asking them to bring their passports, which they claimed are kept at home." Obviously a ploy to alert their co-conspirators that all is not well. Why don't they carry a photocopy of their passport id, as most other farangs do?
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banmebkk
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Discussion 31 : 14/01/2011 at 09:57 AM31
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The police are just targeting a known drug hot spot, and that spot happens to be where Africans gather. But according to their statistics, Africans make up the most among foreigners who traffic drugs. Just like many foreigners that are arrested in Pattaya are Russians, they are involved with drugs and illegal activities. So I hope people don't think the police are targeting a particular race.
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kena
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Discussion 30 : 14/01/2011 at 07:26 AM30
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It wasn't until the 42nd paragraph that mention was made of how much drugs were seized.

How about inside informants? Not easy to set up, but not impossible. Sorry to say it, but Thais are not very good at setting up 'sting operations'. Also, how about a lot of lights and cameras at the problem areas. It won't wipe out the problem, but it will lessen it.

Interesting that the highest valued property in Thailand is in a city with such problems, plus annual riots (each Songkran, Red shirts cause havoc), imminent flooding, fetuses stored in wats, etc. Makes you wonder about the intelligence of humans, - why they place the highest value on such property - when the most beautiful crime-free, gridlock-free, clean-air property is priced the lowest. We're a very odd species, to put it nicely.
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siamgoody
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Discussion 29 : 14/01/2011 at 05:41 AM29
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It is not right to target a particular skin color or nationality, that is very right. The police seemed to have targetted a particular locality which has a large concentration of Africans. So it does seem logical for the police operation. However the story does not end there, the immigration officials who help many such gangs get visas for their members also needs to be tackled. This is clearly a job beyond the capability of Suthep. There is also some indication that the notorious Nigerian or African money scams are being partially run from Thailand, this needs to be checked too. Any connection between the gemstone-drug-money scam business needs to be rooted out or ruled out.

Have you heard of the dozens of ministers who said that they would clean up Pattaya? Have you noticed that this song is now no more on the top 10 charts? Well keep noticing that this Sukhumvit thing will go down the same lane.
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ernest
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Discussion 28 : 13/01/2011 at 06:38 PM28
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we all needs to come clean and tell ourselves the truth. Soi Africa is not the problem. If you clean Bangkok by removing Africans. What about the Europeans and the other western countries that steadly get involved in worst of it all namely: paedolphiles, incests, and other related offences ranging from drugs to scamming done by the West. Let us all respect Thailand and its values.
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