A tourist policeman warns foreigners not to socialize in groups which can be a happy hunting ground for the virus.

By Barry Kenyon
January 11, 202

In a recent case involving a local pub illegally serving booze, an Englishman told a startled police captain he had turned up only when assured by friends that police had already been paid off.

Pattaya’s beleaguered expat population should take extra care not to break the national and provincial rules on alcohol, drugs, gambling and partying. Acting chief of Chonburi police, Pol Major General Thiti Saengsawang, warned that crackdowns would continue because of the health dangers posed by coronavirus in the province.

He recently organized the raid on a Jomtien condominium, hiding a nefarious gambling den in two adjoining flats, in which 16 non-Thais were arrested.

Other recent arrests involving foreigners have included alleged miscreants at a crowded Pattaya birthday party – social mixing is currently outlawed – together with incidents involving booze and prohibited substances at beach areas and in pubs. Total numbers of arrested foreigners are not released officially, but press reports and social media blogs suggest about 100 since Christmas 2020 in the Greater Pattaya area.

Witnesses say many of the farang involved are scarcely hardened felons but have been misled by their peers or by Thai acquaintances. “They are usually retirees or vacationers who have not yet returned to their home country,” said Khun Anan, a lawyer called to the scene of a recent mass arrest. “Because Pattaya is boring right now with entertainment places shuttered, some farang are easily seduced by claims from friends that a certain hotel pool is a private area, exempt from anti-booze regulations, or that gambling is OK provided playing cards rather than dice are used.”

A Frenchman claimed that he was innocently looking for his long-lost brother and was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yet another said that his Thai girlfriend had assured him that the alcohol restrictions had been cancelled that evening on national TV. 100 percent OK. But she turned out to be the daughter of the owner of the raided bar.

https://www.pattayamail.com/news/police ... mic-340029