Crackdown on crime as a New Year's ‘gift’

A source reported yesterday that Paiboon in a recent meeting instructed the Office of the Narcotics Control Board and Corrections Department to curb drug-dealing networks that operate from behind bars. 

The minister also said that all prison officials involved in drug trafficking should face serious punishment and that every time cell-phones are found in prison cells the prison director should be held responsible. He said a DNA test must be conducted on these cellphones promptly to link them to wrongdoers. 

Paiboon also called on the Department of Special Investigation (DSI) to speed up ongoing forest encroachment cases – particularly those near Khao Yai National Park, where tens of thousands rai were being turned into resorts and housing estates – and to formulate a single-map solution to solve the problem of overlapping territory, the source said. 

He also instructed the DSI to get strict on “grey market” car dealers who seek to avoid paying tax – by contacting the Customs Department to assess the amount of tax evaded and work with the Office of the Attorney-General’s International Affairs Department to get tax document copies from the cars’ country of origin to confirm such details. 

Paiboon also instructed officials to seriously crackdown on loan sharks.