Bangkok river pirates
waylay rice barges
for millions of baht of loot
By Jon Fernquest
A convoy of four rice barges
left the docks in Ayutthaya on June 29 and started
travelling slowly down the Chao Phraya river. The barges carried sacks
of rice destined for Koh Si Chang island in Chon
Buri.
Little did the crew manning the barges know what lay in store for them during their journey.
As the rice barges entered a narrow 100-metre-wide bend between Ayutthaya and Pathum Thani, 10 small boats carrying river pirates converged on the barges.
One group of armed men climbed up on the barges and held the barge guards hostage. Another group removed the canvas covering the sacks of rice and took 312 sacks from one barge and 304 from another, offloading them onto the thieves' boats. The whole operation took less than a half an hour.
The guards decided not to report the attack to the police for some reason.
The second attack happened smack in the middle of Bangkok city near the Krung Thep 2 bridge. Forced to hurry, the thieves only got away with 88 sacks of rice.
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As the barges approached Bang Na, 262 additional sacks of rice were stolen from the third as yet untouched barge.
On July 17, after more than two weeks travelling slowly down the Chao Phraya river, the convoy finally arrived in Chon Buri. A total of 966 sacks of rice (48,300 kilogrammes) had been stolen, all told worth one million baht.
The owner of the rice barges suspected that the guards on the rice barge were part of a conspiracy so he fired them.
Rice pirates of the Chao Phraya getting more daring all the time
The rice pirates used to operate around Samut Prakan but they have got more daring and, since the police treat with "as much urgency as they would shoplifting," the pirates now operate all along the river.
It's difficult to collect the evidence to convict these Chao Phraya rice pirates unless they are caught red handed.
Cargo theft is difficult to get convictions because all bags of rice look the same. The buyers of stolen rice quickly change the packaging to evade detection.
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One of the most active and famous thieves is the notorious Boonsom Saeng-in, alias Saeb Maownam, in and out of jail for years. Boonsom was skilled in handling boats along the Chao Phraya and had a thorough knowledge of the docks in Samut Prakan.
Catching rice pirates in their hideout, repacking their stolen rice
In February, marine police raided a den of river pirates, the Sinsomboon factory in Nakhon Pathom's Nakhon Chai Si district.
The river pirates were caught red-handed just as they were packing the stolen rice into new bags to evade detection.
The barge captain (sarang rua) had been paid to turn a blind eye to the theft.
Catch the fertiliser pirates too, please
Rice is not the only good traveling along the Chao Phraya that the river pirates target.
Barges carrying fertiliser to farmers north of Bangkok are attacked as they passed through Nonthaburi, Ayutthaya and Bangkok's Bang Na.
In the past, 500 or 600 tonnes of fertiliser has been lost in one year, worth around 15 million baht at the current price of 25,000 baht per tonne.
Police patrols along the Chao Phraya have been stepped up recently in an effort to catch the river pirates. Police units have been told to be on the lookout for suspicious looking rice sacks and fertiliser packages.
(Source: Bangkok Post, WASSAYOS NGAMKHAM, 28-07-08, temp-link)
Vocabulary:
pirates
- robbery committed on the sea or on a river (See Wikipedia)
โจรสลัด
waylay - stop a person, a ship, or a truck when they
are traveling somewhere, attack them, steal from them (also sometimes
means: talk with someone and delay them) ขวางเส้นทาง
a barge
- a long narrow boat with a flat bottom used for carrying heavy loads
เรือท้องแบน
loot - stolen goods ของที่ลักขโมยมา
a convoy - a group of vehicles or ships traveling
together ขบวนเรือ
docks
- a place for parking boats ท่าเรือ
Koh Si Chang - a small island with a population of
about 5,000 off the coast of Chon Buri near Bangkok (See Wikipedia)
เกาะศรีชัง ในชลบุรี
crew manning the
barges - the workers on the barge ลูกเรือ
what lay in store for them - what was going to
happen to them ที่จะเกิดขึ้น
converged on the
barges - travel closer and closer to, until reaching the
barge เข้าใกล้เรือเข้าไปทีละนิด
held hostage - a person captured and held and only
released when people do what the person wants จับตัวประกัน
smack in the middle of Bangkok - right in the middle
of Bangkok (not a safe place for armed robbery, it would seem)
ใจกลางกรุง
got away with - did something bad without being
caught and punished หนีรอดไปได้
all told worth one million baht - all of it together
had a value of one million baht มีมูลค่ารวมราวล้านบาท
a conspiracy
- a plan by a group of people to do something illegal แผนการ
daring - willing to do dangerous things, not afraid
ไม่หวั่นเกรง
urgency - important, must be done quickly ที่เร่งด่วน
shoplifting
- stealing goods from a store while you are shopping ลักเล็กขโมยน้อย
evidence - the information used to prove that a
person did something illegal หลักฐาน
convict (verb) - when a court decides that the
evidence proves that a person did something illegal and assigns
punishment พิสูจน์ว่ามีความผิด
caught red handed
- caught while they are doing the illegal act, caught while they are
violating the law จับได้คาหนังคาเขา
cargo
- the goods carried by a ship or barge สินค้าที่บรรทุกในเรือ
convictions - the times when a person has been found
guilty of a crime by a court ระยะเวลารับโทษ
evade detection - people don't see you or what you
are doing เล็ดรอดสายตาไปได้
notorious
- famous (in a bad sort of way) มีชื่อเสียงฉาวโฉ่
a hideout - a secret place where people stay, so
that they cannot be found (by the police, for example) ที่หลบซ่อน
ที่ซ่อน
raid - when police enter a
building suddenly with force, looking for criminals เข้าบุก
a den - a secret place where people
meet for an illegal purpose, a hangout for criminals or pirates ที่ซ่อน
รังโจร
raided a den of river
pirates เข้าทลายรังโจร แหล่งกบดานของโจร
turn a blind eye to - pretend you don't know what
is happening (but you do know) ทำไม่รู้ไม่เห็น
patrols - when police or soldiers
move around an area, checking to make sure there are no problems there
เดินยาม เฝ้ายาม
stepped up - increase เพิ่มขื้น
be on the lookout for - watching for something that
might happen ระัมัดระวังภัย
suspicious looking - have the appearance that
they broke the law or did something wrong มีพิรุธ