Police beef up fight against vice and illegal racing

National police chief General Somyot Poompanmuang instructed police in Nonthaburi, Pathum Thani, Samut Prakan, Ayutthaya, Chon Buri, Chachoengsao, Nakhon Pathom, Samut Sakhon and Samut Songkhram to set up the checkpoints and he also told officers to be on the lookout for illegally modified vehicles, weapons and drugs. 

In Chon Buri’s Muang district, police, Army personnel and administrative officials late Friday night erected checkpoints on the seaside road and at Tambon Bang Sai Municipality, areas known for street racing activities from Friday to Sunday. They seized some 200 motorcycles. 

Meanwhile, Pol Lt-General Prawut Thawornsiri, an assistant to the national police chief, led police to inspect two entertainment venues near Kasetsart University in Bangkok’s Chatuchak district at around |1am yesterday following |complaints that they served |many underage people. Police rounded up 76 patrons aged under 20.

Prawut said the two pubs did not have an entertainment-venue licence but merely an alcohol-sales licence, meaning they were allowed to only sell alcohol until midnight. 

However, the bars sold the booze beyond the legal time, including to underage patrons, he said.

Police have slapped the owners with four charges each – operating entertainment venues without permission; selling alcohol to persons aged under 20; selling alcohol beyond the legal time; and allowing people to smoke inside the premise.

Prawut said the operation was in accordance with the government’s policy to tackle alcohol sales near schools and universities.

He said he would ask the Excise Department not to issue an alcohol licence to restaurants located too near to an educational institute.

Previously, the Centre for Alcohol Studies reported that 2,869 alcohol retailers were operating within a 500-metre radius of 15 universities, mainly in Bangkok, and the number of liquor outlets near universities had increased 72 per cent in the past five years.