Boats, buses seized from illegal Phuket tour firm
Police Wednesday morning seized 53 tour buses and 29 speedboats in Phuket’s Muang district from companies under the network of Tranlee Travel Co Ltd.
The searches of three locations by 100 police and relevant officials took place yesterday after arrest warrants were issued for two Tranlee executives, Weerachai Kampaipraphankul and Krisakorn Rungmongkolnam, for allegedly being foreigners who assumed Thai nationality to register a tourist business there.
Police impounded 29 speedboats from Insee Marine Co Ltd's pier, 53 tour buses from TL Better Way Co Ltd's parking lot, and seized related documents from Racha Spa Co Ltd to check the network's financial transactions. Phuket police chief Police Maj-General Theerapol Thipcharoen who led the operation said that the actions did not affect tourists who bought tour programmes from the network as they had reserved boats and buses to transport them.
Police and officials had raided Tranlee and arrested Krisakorn on June 15 (although Weerachai remains at large). The raid followed months of investigation that found many companies in the network allegedly had Chinese or other foreigners using fake identification cards to register the businesses and to register them as shareholders.
Police also claimed that these companies earned over B150 million in revenue but paid only B200,000 in tax a year.
Tour buses, speedboats of alleged Chinese network seized - The Nation