KANCHANABURI: Officials have arrested 14 illegal migrants and a Thai smuggler in Thong Pha Phum district before they travelled farther to Bangkok and several other provinces deeper in the country.
Tipped off about the human smuggling attempt, local police and soldiers intercepted a silver Mazda pickup truck registered in Kanchanaburi at a checkpoint near Thong Pha Phum-Sangkhla Buri intersection in tambon Tha Khanoon of Thong Pha Phum district at 4.45am.
Officials found four illegal migrants lying on the back seat of the truck and ten more covering themselves with a sheet on the loading tray of the vehicle.
Winai Khamphuang, the 50-year-old Thai driver who is a native of Chumphon province, said he was hired for 10,000 baht to pick up the aliens from forestland beside Highway 323 near a highway office in Sangkhlaburi district.
He would send the illegal migrants to another smuggler in tambon Tha Sao of Sai Yok district.
The aliens allegedly paid 14,000 baht to go to work in Samut Sakhon, Ratchaburi, Ranong, Chon Buri and Bangkok, he said.
Officials had yet to test the migrants for Covid-19. They will be repatriated later.
Over the past week, officials in Thong Pha Phum rounded up 118 illegal migrants on four occasions.