Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing the army, their continued involvement in matters pertaining to this anti-nominee crackdown going on in Thailand; frankly it's an Immigration crackdown at this point. As I have discussed in other videos, there have been two weapons caches that have been found in the possession of foreign nationals here in Thailand. I know there are a lot of people talking about, "well how are they sourced to them?" etc., etc.  That's another issue, and I do get that, and why it might need to be an issue, but at the end of the day there were foreign nationals found with weapons caches.  Some people say "cach" or cache; I always say cache; whatever. But at the end of the day, that has completely caused this whole thing to be kicked up into a national security kind if paradigm, and it's resulting in serious, serious crackdowns here, and it's most evidenced by the fact that the Thai Army is not only involved, but they are proactively involved in dealing with this. 

So again, this is not like something that should be viewed from an administrative standpoint. We're in the high cotton, high weeds if you will at the moment. That said let's go ahead and jump in here. Quoting an article from the Phuket News, that is thephuketnews.com, the article is titled: ISOC tightens Phuket security crackdown. Quoting directly: "Phuket security and anti-drug operations were placed under the spotlight on Saturday (May 23) as 4th Army Area Commander Lt Gen Norathip Poynok led a high-level meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall to review threats ranging from narcotics trafficking to illegal land encroachment and foreign nominee business activities." Quoting further: "The meeting brought together senior provincial officials, police, military commanders and representatives from multiple government agencies to coordinate ongoing enforcement and security efforts across the island. Officials reviewed the province's overall security situation, with discussions focusing on drug prevention and suppression, public space management, illegal immigration, transnational crime, natural resource encroachment and concerns over foreign land ownership through nominee arrangements." Quoting further: "Officials confirm that several cases remain under legal proceedings while authorities continue to investigate land ownership documents, business operations involving foreigners and alleged nominee arrangements." 

Yeah, and as we discussed, there are matters that arose over on Phanga, Koh Phangan and Samui where there are people that have now like there's like almost two dozen of them - like over 20 people - foreign nationals involved in various of these companies that are currently under investigation, and they are being detained without bail while the investigation is ongoing. I can't stress this enough. The army is involved; they are detaining people without bail over issues associated with nominee arrangements. Law enforcement here in Thailand on this issue is not messing around any longer. Again, as I've discussed in other videos, there was a time some 10, 15 years ago, Immigration matters were considered administrative. Around about the time of "Big Joke" coming on board - the former head of Thai Immigration - it became much, much more of a law enforcement sort of paradigm. And then with the tensions that came up, the conflict at the border with Cambodia, coupled with all of this, we have seen of foreigners behaving badly as well as foreign nationals in caught with large weapons stashes, this has all been upgraded into a national security kind of paradigm, and the result of that is increasingly assiduous law enforcement, increasingly heightened scrutiny associated with these types of business setups, looking at these corporate arrangements. Also coming online is AI and more digital technology at the fingertips of law enforcement to go ahead and quickly cross-reference corporate documentation against land office documentation, even against work authorization documentation, to ascertain whether or not a given business is legitimate here in Thailand. 

Long story short, and I can't stress this enough, this is a time right now where being in strict compliance with relevant Thai law is going to be the main thrust of how things are going to operate moving forward. As a result of that, you need to plan accordingly.