Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are talking about gang operatives coming in and out of Thailand freely; illegally but freely. I initially thought of making this video, I was reading the article and the article I am going to cite comes from Thai Examiner, thaiexaminer.com, I will just go ahead and quote. The article is titled: Massive Raid by Immigration on Muang Thong Thani Romance Scam Centre sees 13 Africans arrested. 

I was initially going to do this video as sort of a Foreigners Behaving Badly video or something, but there was a significant aspect of this article that gets into immigration matters, and I thought that was pertinent so we're going to go ahead and focus on that. Quoting directly, again thaiexaminer.com: "Bangkok police smashed a condo-based romance scam hub after a Thai woman lost 2 million Baht, arresting 13 foreign suspects. Raids exposed Telegram-run fraud, fake profiles, illegal entry routes and crypto cash flows tied to a wider regional network." Quoting further: "Police in Bangkok on Wednesday smashed a large romance scam network run by African operatives, most of whom had entered Thailand illegally. The scam centre was uncovered in Muang Thong Thani on the city's outskirts, a major conference and exhibition hub, after police led by Immigration Bureau Division 3 sealed off the complex and raided 11 locations. 13 Africans were arrested for immigration offenses, including eleven Nigerians and two suspects from Cote d'Ivoire, with the operation sharply exposing how gang operatives appeared able to enter and leave Thailand freely, without any official record." Quoting further: "During questioning, suspects admitted entering via the Laos border. The route bypassed official checkpoints. Meanwhile, Police referenced earlier intelligence. Similar routes had been documented. Previously, investigators found evidence of movement from Malaysia. Border crossings were repeated. Consequently, police noted ongoing vulnerabilities. The raid was overseen by senior officials. The Immigration Bureau Commissioner attended. The Provincial Police Region 1 Commissioner was present. Several commanders participated. Deputy Commissioners and Superintendents supervised the operation. Investigation officers executed searches. Coordination was handled on-site."

So the title is, "they managed to move around freely", but if you notice the police were on them like white on rice. I mean how many? Just Commissioners alone, the Head Commissioner was there; the Provincial Region 1 Commissioner was there; several Commanders, Deputy Commissioners and superintendents supervised the operation. I mean look, if you take nothing away from this video, take this away. Immigration enforcement is taken increasingly seriously by Thai Immigration. As I have discussed in other videos, with the onset effectively of the conflict between Thailand and Cambodia, the entire notion of immigration - there was a paradigm shift and there has been over the course of the past roughly few months. Again some, what was it now, 8, 9 years ago, I talked about the paradigm shift away from an administrative mindset associated with immigration over to a law enforcement mindset. Now there's a national security paradigm that is sort of all mixed together with this, and the upshot is Thai Immigration Police are very, very serious about not only scrutinizing foreigners and where they're coming from - and clearly they have all the resources they need to track these people ultimately - and ultimately they are very, very concerned with actually enforcing Immigration Law and deporting people who are here operating illegally.

What does this mean, and the thing to take away from this video, if you are coming to Thailand to live by the law and do things right, no problem. You're probably going to be fine. Get a proper visa and spend your time here accordingly. That said, if you are coming here to try to pull off some sort of scam or circumvent the Immigration System, you are going to have a bad time because the upshot of that is going to be how many Commissioners, how many law enforcement officials are going to be bearing down on you, causing you a problem and ultimately seeing you either arrested, detained and then ultimately possibly even deported from the Kingdom of Thailand.