Crime and law enforcement

Malaysia and Thailand have agreed to build a wall along their common border next year amid growing concerns about human trafficking. The 640-kilometer Malaysia-Thailand border has long been the site of transnational crime, including the rampant smuggling of weapons, drugs, and people. Keep reading ...

Thailand’s junta has detained a senior newspaper reporter and columnist, his paper says, the latest in a string of arrests targeting those who speak out against the government. Thepchai Yong, the editor-in-chief of the English-language Nation, said “there is no justification whatsoever” for Pravit Rojanaphruk’s detention. Keep ...

Almost US$20 billion in dirty money linked to corruption, crime and tax evasion has left Myanmar in the past five decades, slashing government revenue and driving a thriving underground economy, a money-laundering watchdog said on 9 September. Fraudulent invoicing of trade deals and physical smuggling of drugs, ...

One of the alleged accomplices to the key suspect wanted over the Erawan Shrine bombing in the Thai capital Bangkok last month is Chinese, officials from both countries say. They say that Yusufu Mieraili was born in Xinjiang, home to China’s Muslim Uighur minority. Keep reading ...

The Erawan shrine bombing in Bangkok cost 64.30 billion baht in lost tourism revenue from 1.33 million visitors and the industry should recover in the fourth quarter of 2015, the Tourism and Sports Ministry told the cabinet meeting on 8 September. Keep reading ...

Two Christians were arrested by the police in the province of Khammouan, in the east of Laos, on charges of alleged proselytizing. The police broke into the house of a Christian in the village of Nong-hang, and arrested Bountheung Phetsomphone, 43, a Christian leader from another ...

A group of Thai football fans were arrested after violent clashes with Lao officials during a youth match in Vientiane.  Keep reading ...

Lao police on 5 September released 25 Thais who stirred up violence during a football match in Vientiane on 4 September, the Thai embassy said. The embassy said Lao authorities contacted Thai diplomats in Vientiane to arrange for the hooligans to be sent home and they ...

Police are giving weight to possible connections between the Erawan shrine and Sathon pier bombings and Uighur smuggling rings allowing migrants to flee China and head to Turkey. National police chief Somyot Poompunmuang on 3 September said as police pieced information together, it was becoming increasingly clear that those ...

Police in the Cambodian province of Tbong Khmum have arrested two men for allegedly damaging a pillar that marks the border between the country and Vietnam, Vietnam Plus reported on 2 September. Keep reading ...