Bangkokgo - TOURIST Safety news
Bangkok is the mecca of Asia and the most popular destination for tourists whether backpackers or business people. The city of Bangkok is a thriving metropolis and caters for everyone young and old. At night time after dark the place is transformed with neons and lights that just dazzle the visitor & offers entertainment virtually all night from movies to theatre to shows and videos to girlie bars, massage and live entertainment bands & nightclubs. We welcome you to Bangkokgo.com where we are featuring the jazzy side of Bangkok from massage parlours to the best eating and drinking spots to girlie bars, with videos section and even business ideas and help for those here for the GO session ---that means business and pleasure.
But Thailand is can be a trap for the unwary traveller so be careful wherever you go.
The man who could change Thailand and Politics --
a straight shooter Mr Chuwit
NEWS ON THE THAI POLITICAL FRONT. YOU CAN'T BEAT THESE GUYS--- THE NAME OF THE GAME IS MONEY & THE PRIZE IS POWER. HOWEVER IF MR THAKSIN SHINAWATRA CAN GET OFF THE TAX CHARGES THEN HE IS SET TO LEAD THAILAND ONCE AGAIN. WILL THIS BE GOOD FOR THAILAND! & WILL HE BE HEAVY HANDED ON FIGHTING CORRUPTION WITHIN. ONLY HE AS A TRUE BELIEVER IN THE WELL BEING OF THE THAI NATION CAN ANSWER THIS???
2008 TOURIST NEWS MARCH 2008
2008 NEWS FROM THAILAND
Mountie's widow irate over drug dealer's 'sideshow'
source: Vancouver Sun Monday, March 17, 2008
Metro Vancouver resident Fiona Flanagan is spitting mad.
Nineteen years after her Mountie husband Derek was killed on the job in Thailand, the painful case is being dredged up again by an admitted heroin importer who was targeted by police in an international smuggling probe.
In recent days, Alain Olivier has been making the media rounds in B.C. claiming he deserves $47 million in compensation from the RCMP after they "entrapped" him in an elaborate undercover operation in which Derek Flanagan died accidentally.
Fiona Flanagan, pictured at a memorial nine years ago with sons Chris (left) and Jeordie, says greed is motivating Alain Olivier's claim of police entrapment in the undercover operation that resulted in the 1989 death of her husband.
But in January, a Quebec Superior Court judge found that Olivier had no credibility and that his own calm, collected voice on police wiretaps undermined his claim that he was intimidated by undercover officers into participating in the 1989 plot to import heroin from Bangkok.
Olivier's appeal in the civil case, which names a number of B.C. RCMP officers both active and retired, will be heard today before three justices in Montreal, where the ex-con now lives.
Flanagan is confident the appeal will be thrown out, just like the original civil case. But she is still furious that Olivier - a former Gibsons resident who ended up spending eight years in a Thai jail - is spinning his discredited version of the tragic events that left her a widow with two small sons.
"I am angry and I am frustrated," Flanagan said Sunday. "Why do we as a family have to defend actions that the court has said were entirely within the context of Derek's job? Why are we defending his name 19 years later against someone that the courts have deemed is not credible? It is not fair."
Olivier claims he was just a small-town heroin addict living on the Sunshine Coast when RCMP officers posing as drug dealers mistook him for his criminal twin and pushed him into a deal to procure five kilos of pure heroin.
While the RCMP admitted they wrongly believed Olivier had a criminal record that belonged to his brother, they said it was in fact Olivier who boasted for months that he had the contacts to arrange and smuggle several kilos of Thai heroin.
"Olivier was not a major importer, as he was identified by the RCMP, but he did not hesitate on at least two occasions (in 1987 and 1988) to import a small amount of heroin into Canada," Judge Michel Caron said in his recent ruling.
"The Court accepts that the motivation of the police officers was the search for a source and since Olivier said openly that he was able to make contact with a source in Thailand to purchase five kilos of heroin, the interest in targeting Olivier was genuine." For 18 months before Olivier went to Thailand to close the deal in February 1989, he had regular contact with the undercover officers.
The police successfully argued during the trial last fall that it was Olivier who kept calling them back, insisting he was the right guy for the job even when the covert RCMP operators had moved on to other targets. The arrangements were made and Olivier travelled ahead of the Mounties, including Cpl. Derek Flanagan, to Bangkok. The deal was almost complete. Flanagan was on the back of a pickup with Olivier's contacts testing the heroin when a scuffle ensued and the 35-year-old Mountie fell from the vehicle, breaking his neck and dying instantly. Thai police moved in and arrested their nationals, as well as Olivier, who pleaded guilty to the drug charges and was sentenced to life in prison. He was returned to Canada in 1997 and remains on parole. In 2000, he launched a massive lawsuit against the RCMP and the federal Attorney-General, complaining that he never would have been mixed up in the deal if police hadn't pushed him into it. But Fiona Flanagan said that just like in 1989, Olivier is motivated by greed, wanting to cash in on events that arose out of his own drug use and willingness to become a big-time trafficker. "For the last eight years since this suit was launched, we have been basically quiet," Flanagan said. "Because he lost in court, he is going around doing this travelling sideshow." Chris Flanagan hopes to follow his dad into the RCMP. Now living in Saskatchewan with a new baby, the 23-year-old said Sunday that it has been hard to witness the public dissemination of Olivier's distorted version of his family's tragedy. "It is frustrating. It has been 19 years and it is still going on and you just want closure," he said.
Swedish tourist killed on the beach in Phuket
The bangkok-based Crime Suppression Division Sunday deployed its officers to join local police in Phuket to conduct a manhunt for the killer of a Swedish tourist. Hanna Charlotta Backlund, 27, was found dead with multiple stab wounds on Mai Khao Beach in Phuket's Thalang district Saturday afternoon. CSD Commander Pol Maj Gen Pongphat Chayaphan said he had deployed some officers to help local police to hunt for the killer. Phongphat said the wounds appeared like being inflicted by a kind of knife of local fishermen so police would question local fishermen and workers at all construction sites near the beach.The body of Hanna Charlotta Backlund, 27, who was found murdered on Mai Khao Beach yesterday morning, has been flown to Bangkok for forensic tests, Col Sakchai Limcharoen, Superintendent of Tah Chat Chai Police Station.Hanna Charlotta was staying at Mai Khao Beach Bungalow resort with Emma Storman, who found Hanna’s body about 300 meters from the resort. “The place where the body was found is hard to see and very quiet. There is a mound there and behind that is thick with trees. There are no restaurants near there, and no people.” Emma told police that she did not see anyone in the area around the time of the murder, Lt Col Payongsak said. “Emma left the resort to buy some water and she told Hanna that she will join her sunbathing later. About 30 minutes later, she returned to find Hanna dead,” he said. “Hanna was very beautiful and she was sunbathing topless. Emma said that they normally sunbathed topless if there were no people around,” he added. “There were many stab wounds on her neck, one on her back, one near her navel and both of her hands had been cut by something sharp. It’s possible those wounds came from her fighting her attacker,” Lt Col Payongsak said. Phuket Gazette/Nation.
Murderer of Swedish tourist arrested
source: Bangkok Post online 18 Mar 2008
Thai police have captured the man responsible for the brutal murder of a Swedish tourist on the resort town of Phuket on Sunday night. Authorities identified the man as Akradej Pianjay, 32, a fisherman who had moored his boat around Chatchai pier on the day of the murder. He has confessed to the crime and affirmed that he had acted alone. The arrest was made based on eyewitness accounts and evidence linking the man to the case such as scratches seen on his body - a sign of struggle which points to his victim desperately trying to fight him off. His arrest comes two days after 27-year-old Swedish tourist Charotta Hanna was found dead on Mai Khao beach with several stab wounds to her body.
Brit tourist found dead in Thailand
MURDER squad detectives in Thailand have launched an investigation into the death of a North-East man. Ivor Chandler, of Skelton, East Cleveland, was found dead in the Phetchabun region of Thailand on Thursday. Mr Chandler, who was in his mid-50s, had been in the country visiting his girlfriend. The retired ICI worker had been flying out to Thailand on a regular basis for more than four years and last went out there in January. His shocked cousin from Middlesbrough, who is also called Ivor Chandler, said he found out about his cousin's death only on Sunday when Mr Chandler's sister called to say she was flying out there to find out what had happened. He said: "He was always flitting off to Thailand. I know he had been going out there a good few years. Then all of a sudden this happened." He said his cousin had lived alone for years but often visited him in between his trips to Thailand. "We became closer when his mum died a few years ago. He's a quiet sort of person who retired due to ill health."He always seemed quiet enough and was not the type to go out looking for trouble."He said his cousin had always loved travelling and had got to know a woman out in Thailand. "He was always going to see his uncle in America and going to Thailand. "He used to take all his favourite little nibbles and things with him. He used to take enough back to last him."He used to upgrade to business class because he travelled so much."He said Thailand police are questioning a man in connection with the death."That's all I know," he said. "We don't even know what the motive was."A Foreign Office spokesman said today: "We are aware of the death of a British national in Phetchabun. We are providing consular support to the family and the Thai police are investigating the death. We have no more details surrounding the death at the moment." Northern Echo (UK)
Bangkok city governor suspends his duties
BANGKOK: -- Bangkok Governor Apirak Kosayodhin announced Thursday he will suspend his duty after an anti-graft panel linked him to fire trucks scandals. Assets Examination Committee member Klanarong Chantik said on Wednesday that his committee is seeking charges against six people including Apirak and former commerce minister Wattana Muangsuk. Apirak told reporters that he will suspend his duty, starting today, pending the investigation of the AEC on the scandals. -- The Nation 2008-03-13 by the way the PM of Thailand is also implicated yet no resignation from him????
Fatal shooting after argument at Chiang Mai restaurant
Police in Chiang Mai confirmed last Saturday that William Thomas Douglas, 61, an Australian national and long-term resident of Chiang Mai, had been charged with the murder of 46 year old American Gary Booth Poretsky. The shooting occurred on Saturday morning at the Koie Chiang Mai restaurant near the moat, where the two men had been drinking. Police were called to the scene of the crime, and found Poretsky’s body on the floor underneath a table. He had been shot three times, twice in the body and once in the head. The killer had fled the scene, but later surrendered to the police and admitted his crime.Gary Poretsky, 46, reportedly arrived in Bangkok two weeks ago for dental work which is considerably cheaper there than in the United States.He then traveled to the northern city of Chiang Mai for vacation. He went to a 24-hour restaurant on Saturday morning. "It's not in the tourist area. It's a place where local Thai people go to eat and drink beer," said freelance video journalist John Le Fevre. Le Fevre said Poretsky went to the restaurant with a female guide. "She seemed to think that it was a good idea that one foreigner would want to talk to another foreigner so brought the shooter over to the table and then the discussion apparently became heated according to the restaurant staff," Le Fevre said. Australian William Douglas allegedly shot Poretsky three times and ran away. He later turned himself in. Le Fevre said Douglas, 60, confessed to the shooting while in jail. "That's basically what he's told police - he doesn't like Americans and he thinks Americans talk down to people, flout their superiority, so he shot this poor fellow," Le Fevre said. Douglas is taking medication and is on suicide watch, according to Le Fevre. Douglas is a long-term Chiang Mai resident. He said he has been doing undercover police work but authorities denied that claim. Well it seems he did the shooting as he was showing off how tough he was in Chiangmai and new the Feds etc and had a gun. The more he drank the better the story got until the other man decided perhaps Bill was talking a load of rubbish!!!!!! Only Bill knows the real story or does he as the drink may have upset his brain dept and his dream of being a cop wonnaby.
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BUSINESS:
For those of you that want to come to Bangkok for pleasure as well as business then BANGKOKGO can help you find the right shipping company and we offer you free quotes on your shipments anywhere in the world. We can even pickup at your hotel or shops you buy from saving you the hassle of bringing to us. We over see all your shipments and assist you with your buys right to quality control. Bangkokgo is for those on the go so whether it is an escort you want after your business meeting to just a booking for a Hotel or one of our Condos then let us assist you.
BANGKOK SAFETY PROBLEMS Beware of pickpockets on overcrowded public transportation and markets etc like Chatuchuk. Avoid going to a strange place with few people and when using ATMs and banks keep an eye around you for who may be watching you. In taxis try to remember the number on the window sill. Carry copies of your passport. Taking taxis are safe but always use the meter and if the driver says its broken down don't believe him. Try to avoid touts and go to the main roads to hail a cab. Try and remember the number of the cab which is noirmally on the doors. Do not look rich with jewelry.
Emergency Phone Numbers are — Mobile Police, 191; Fire Brigade, 199; Ambulance, 252-2171; Tourist Assistance Centre, 281-5051 or 282-8129.
Telephone: The country telephone code for Thailand is 66, Bangkok city code is 2. The number 1 or 01 in front of a number indicates that it’s a mobile phone and all mobile phones changed as at Dec1st 2006 and now the dial number is 08--etc. Dial 13 for Directory Assistance, and be patient if you need an English speaker. International calls are now possible in public telephone booths and they are clearly marked in English. Time/Temperature—Time, phone 181. Weather, 398-9830.
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