Troops thwart attempt to smuggle 40 Myanmar workers in Ranong
The army on Monday intercepted an attempt to smuggle 40 Myanmar workers from Ranong's border to Chumphon and arrested three truck drivers.
Troops from the 25th Infantry Regiment managed to stop the three pickup containing the undocumented migrants after being alerted by villagers who spotted the vehicles on a remote road heading towards Chumphon.
The troops arrested 34 Myanmar men and six women as well as the drivers, one from Thailand and two from Myanmar.
The three men admitted that they had each been paid Bt2,000 to pick up the migrants from the border near Myamar's Koh Song. The plan had been to take them to Chumphon, where they would be handed over to another team that would try to smuggle them into Malaysia.
The drivers were later handed over to the Ranong Immigration office for questioning ahead of the expected deportation of the smuggled workers.
