30 Karens arrested with weapons at illegal camp in Kanchanaburi national park

Officials at Khuean Srinagarindra National Park in Kanchanaburi province on Friday arrested 30 Karen nationals for allegedly trespassing on national forest land. 

Further investigation shows possible involvement in a passport scam, officials said.

A park official said they were alerted by villagers that a group of foreign nationals had set up a camp in the forest in Na Suan subdistrict of Si Sawat district. Some of the group members had been seen carrying weapons, threatening local villagers, and engaging in what were described as “weird cultist rituals”, he said.

A raid on the camp by park officials and Kanchanaburi police officers on Friday morning resulted in the arrest of 11 males, 10 females, and nine children, none of whom had proper immigration documents, the official said.

Officials also seized from the camp five guns, body armour, swords, knives, chainsaws, construction tools, handheld transceivers, and mobile phones.

The suspects were sent to Si Sawat Police Station to be charged with trespassing on a national park and illegal entry, among others.

Police said initial investigation revealed that the gang leader could have been running a passport scam operation, based on a complaint filed by a Karen YouTuber.

The YouTuber claimed that the man had been scamming Karen people in Thailand into believing that for a 5,000-baht fee per person, he could make a passport that allows Karens travel to 196 countries.

The YouTuber said several viewers of his channel had informed him that they had been scammed by the same person.