Thailand returns stolen luxury cars to Malaysia, seeks ASEAN anti-crime cooperation

BANGKOK, January 22 (TNA) - Thailand has delivered luxury cars back to Malaysia, where they were stolen, and plans to expand anti-crime cooperation with other member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). National Police Chief Police General Somyot Poompanmoung returned the 20 earlier stolen luxury cars to Malaysia on Thursday, when he welcomed his visiting Malaysian counterpart Tan Sri Dato Sri Khalid Bin Abu Bakar at the Royal Thai Police headquarters in Bangkok. Police General Somyot said that the cars were stolen in Malaysia and brought into Thailand by persons claiming to be tourists visiting the Thai far South, noting that some of the stolen cars were transported by sea to Thailand. The national police chief revealed that there had been orders for those cars and influential people had imported them for sales at prices cheaper than market ones and Thai police had already prosecuted them for importing the vehicles without paying tariffs. According to the national police chief, Thai and Malaysian police have exchanged information on all forms of crime, including narcotics, goods smuggling and car theft, and he wants to expand the cooperation to other ASEAN member countries. Meanwhile, Royal Thai Police Spokesman Police Lieutenant General Prawut Thawornsiri told journalists that the Thai and Malaysian national police chiefs also discussed security in the violence-plagued Thai deep South and crime suppression cooperation, but they did not mention a case of a fugitive from the southern Thai border province of Pattani, identified as Sahachai Jiansermsin, because there has been no evidence that the wanted Thai man fled to Malaysia. (TNA)