CHIANG RAI – Tourist police have intercepted a pickup truck carrying five Chinese men after they travelled from the Lao PDR into Chiang Rai. The group claimed they were on a trip and on their way back, but checks found some had no documents at all, while others had passports with no valid visa.
In the early hours of Saturday, Pol Col Phitsanu Triemdee, commander of Subdivision 2 of the Tourist Police, assigned Pol Lt Col Issara Bunlam to take five Chinese nationals and one Thai man into custody and hand them over to investigators at Ban Du Police Station in Mueang Chiang Rai district for legal action.
According to Pol Col Phitsanu, on the evening of December 5th, Tourist Police officers received information that several Chinese migrants would be smuggled through Chiang Rai towards the Thai–Lao border in Chiang Saen district. A team was sent out to gather more details.
They later learned that a white Isuzu cab pickup truck was travelling along the eastern bypass, heading from Mueang Chiang Rai district towards Chiang Saen.
When the vehicle approached the new Buadang intersection in Mae Khao Tom subdistrict, Mueang Chiang Rai, officers moved in to stop it. The driver cooperated, turned the vehicle to the side of the road, and parked.
Police identified the driver as Mr Yuttana, a 38‑year‑old resident of Chiang Khong district in Chiang Rai province. Inside the vehicle were five male passengers, all Chinese nationals aged between 20 and 40.
Officers asked to see their immigration documents. Three of them had passports, but none had entry stamps for Thailand. The other two had no documents of any kind.
Through a Chinese interpreter, the men told police that they worked in the Lao PDR. On a day off, they had secretly crossed the Mekong River into Chiang Rai via an informal crossing point. They said they spent time sightseeing in Chiang Rai city, then planned to go back to work by returning across the Mekong to Lao PDR.
To get back to the border area, they hired the pickup truck driver, paying him 500 baht to take them from Mueang Chiang Rai district to Chiang Saen district. Tourist police then detained all six occupants of the vehicle and handed them over to investigators at Ban Du Police Station for legal proceedings under Thai law.
Chinese Nationals and a Rwandan Arrested in Chiang Saen
On Friday, Immigration police officers in Chiang Saen arrested seven foreign nationals from China and Rwanda while they were walking along the Mekong River, preparing to cross into Laos. None of them had valid travel or immigration documents.
From questioning, officers learned that all seven had used brokers to move between China, Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand, paying tens of thousands of yuan each for the journey.
On Friday, police officers from the Chiang Saen Immigration Checkpoint in Chiang Rai, responsible for the Thai–Lao border in this area, stepped up patrols to stop illegal entry and exit from the country.
This followed when they found a group of seven foreign men, aged between 20 and 46, walking on a public road next to the Mekong River near Ban San Ton Pao, Moo 1, Mae Ngoen subdistrict, Chiang Saen district.
When officers checked them, they discovered that six were Chinese nationals and one was from Rwanda. None of them could show lawful entry documents. Officers arrested them and charged them with: “Foreign nationals entering and staying in the Kingdom without permission under the Immigration Act B.E. 2522.”
Chiang Rai Province, located in northern Thailand along the borders with Myanmar and Laos, has long been a hotspot for illegal border crossings due to its porous terrain, including the Mekong River and rugged mountain trails.
Chinese nationals frequently feature in these incidents, often entering via Myanmar or Laos to evade official checkpoints. Motivations typically include seeking work in casinos, escaping scam operations or unrest in neighboring countries, or transiting to other destinations.
Thai authorities, including immigration police and border patrols, regularly conduct operations to intercept such groups
