Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing, well we are discussing this anti-nominee crackdown that we're seeing in Thailand, and I have made other videos contemporaneously with this one. The real thrust of this is to get people to understand. Thai law enforcement is on a whole different page now when it comes to this. As I discussed in prior videos, they consider this as a top priority national security issue. They found in one week basically, two different caches of weapons held by foreigners otherwise behaving badly insofar as engaging in otherwise illicit behaviour or operating nominee setups. This game as quite a shock I think to most folks in Thailand. When the average Thai hears that, yeah crackdown is coming and that's going to be what most Thais, voters, just the Thai public, are going to want from their government, from their law enforcement is, do something about this because we don't want foreign nationals just coming over here flouting the law and then I don't know, holding up with a bunch of guns to do what with; it's not good, and I think that the government is right to prioritize it as a national security issue. That said, I think it's important to point out from a practical standpoint how serious law enforcement is taking this as well as the Courts because these folks that are dealing with this, they are not walking around on bail; they are detained. So let's dive into that.

I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: 21 foreign suspects in Koh Phangan nominee probe in Court. Quoting directly: "Police will today oppose bail when they apply to extend the detention of 21 foreigners arrested" - "extend the detention", that's important. These people are currently detained, okay? Quoting further: "21 foreigners arrested in connection with the operations of nominee businesses in Koh Phangan in the Samui Provincial Court. The arrests were part of a nationwide crackdown targeting foreigners illegally operating businesses through use of Thai nominees. The operation led to the arrest of 21 foreign suspects and the seizure of 38 Land Title deeds worth about 200 million Baht for examination. The group comprises individuals of multiple nationalities including four Israelis, four French, three Russian and two Ukrainians. Others are from Africa, Slovakia, the Netherlands, Australia, Turkey, Germany and the Philippines with one nationality undisclosed." I would kind of like to know the undisclosed nationality; just be curious to know that. Quoting further: "Police said on Sunday that investigators had denied the suspects release on bail." So these folks are not walking around just free and clear while this is sort of an ongoing administrative function. I think this is highly indicative of the paradigm shift that has happened. I have discussed this at length. With regard to immigration specifically, going back 15, 18 years ago when I first got here, Immigration was treated as an administrative matter. Then somewhere along the way, right around about the time Big Joke kind of came on the scene, we saw it shift into a Law Enforcement kind of paradigm, and then in both the aftermath of this past summer with the tensions along the border, as well as these recent discoveries of weapons caches being held by foreigners behaving badly in Thailand, we've seen things really paradigm shift over into a National Security sort of thinking, and this is especially evident by the fact that these folks are not granted bail. In the past, these types of things would be considered corporate legal compliance issues. Yes there might be a criminal law component, but you could probably be walking around while you were dealing with it as long as you were making your appearances in Court; you didn't pose any kind of a flight risk or something. Not the case now. Clearly law enforcement in Thailand - and let's remember, I just did a video, also the Army was called in. The 4th Division of the Army here in Thailand got called in to deal with some of this stuff. 

So again, the Thais are taking this very seriously. I think we can see it in how they are acting from both a law enforcement standpoint as well as how they are treating those who are under suspicion of operating illegally here in the Kingdom of Thailand.