A man who robbed a gold shop in the town of Mae Sai on the Thai side of the Thai-Myanmar border was arrested on the Myanmar side.
On November 26th last year, the 34-year-old man went to a casino in Tachileik on the Myanmar side to pay off his debts after robbing a gold shop in Mae Sai, according to MaeSai Press, a Thai media outlet.
The male offender sold 5-kyattha (about 81.6 grams) of gold robbed from the gold shop for 153500 Thai baht and paid off his debt, MaeSai Press reported.
The perpetrator of the robbery was arrested through the Thai authorities in cooperation with the Thai-Myanmar Township Border Committee (TBC) and BLO.
MaeSai Press also reported that he had also been charged with illegally entering Myanmar.
Although thefts and robberies occur almost every day in Tachileik, Myanmar police did not make any serious efforts to fight these crimes, but when Thailand asked for help, they were able to arrest the culprit within days.
“Sometimes, we wonder if the Myanmar Police has deliberately allowed crimes to take place in the country. They can immediately arrest the accused who fled from Thailand. There are thefts and robberies here every day, but the perpetrators are not arrested at all," a 40-year-old resident of Tachileik told the Shan Herald.
Thieves and bandits have become more common in Shan state since the military coup, but the authorities and the police still fail to arrest and prosecute them.
