A Songkhla man was arrested on Thursday for allegedly being a member of a human trafficking ring that has been smuggling Myanmar migrants to Malaysia across the southern border.
Thammasak Boonyarit, 60, was arrested at a house in Songkhla’s Hat Yai district under an arrest warrant issued by Chumphon Court.
The arrest was made a day after Hat Yai police intercepted an attempt to smuggle 15 Myanmar migrants in Hat Yai.
A pickup truck with the migrants was stopped on the Asia Highway in Ban Na Khuan village in Tambon Khuan Lung in Hat Yai.
Police learned that Thammasak was allegedly part of a ring and he played the part of driving Myanmar migrants from Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Cha-uad district to the border in Pattani or Narathiwat, where they would be further smuggled into Malaysia.
Another ring member would drive the Myanmar migrants from Prachuap Khiri Khan to Nakhon Si Thammarat, police said.
Thammasak denied the charges.
