The junta is cracking down on unregistered vehicles throughout Mon State, seizing unregistered cars and motorcycles and arresting their owners.
Junta inspection teams are carrying out checks day and night on vehicles as they enter and exit towns and cities across Mon State. They are also randomly stopping and inspecting vehicles in downtown areas of those towns and cities. In some cases they have entered homes to search for unregistered vehicles following a tip-off.
When they find unregistered vehicles officials are not just confiscating the vehicle, they are also prosecuting the owners for breaching importation laws and regulations. But, those who have connections to junta officials or who can afford to pay bribes are often released with their vehicles, according to a resident of Mudon Township in Mon State, who spoke to Than Lwin Times.
A resident of Mawlamyine City, the Mon State capital, said inspection teams are now present at nearly every major location in the city, randomly stopping vehicles to check that they are properly registered.
He said: “They're everywhere in the city now. They stop every vehicle they come across and check all the registration documents thoroughly — everything from the wheel tax to the ownership papers. If they find the vehicle is unregistered, they seize it and detain the person right away.”
Vehicle inspection teams often include personnel from multiple departments. Drivers and riders who fail to stop immediately when flagged down are frequently subjected to verbal abuse, and in some cases, even physical assault.
The aforementioned Mudon Township resident said that many of junta troops, police, and other department personnel involved in the crackdown are themselves using unregistered vehicles.
He said: “Now they’re going around confiscating unregistered motorcycles. But they’re the ones who allowed these motorcycles to be sold in the shops in the first place. Before they start a crackdown, they usually tip off the shops they’ve made deals with, so those shops hide both the registered and unregistered motorcycles. The truth is, the authorities themselves use unregistered vehicles all the time. But when regular people ride them, they get seized. It’s the people who end up suffering.”
He added that the current crackdown has caused severe travel disruptions for people in Mon State.
The crackdown on unregistered vehicles intensified following an order from coup leader Min Aung Hlaing during a meeting in the capital, Naypyidaw, on 20 May 2025.
He said that the large number of unregistered vehicles needs to be addressed because it is a drain on the nation’s tax revenue which weakens the security sector. He instructed the relevant departments to intensify their efforts to crack down on unregistered vehicles and vehicles with counterfeit licence plates and to identify everyone involved in the production of counterfeit licence plates.
