Ayutthaya highway police arrested a van driver who admitted to transporting migrant workers, citing insufficient income. He had done this several times, charging 500 baht per person for the job.
On 8 August 2026, Police Lieutenant Colonel Supakorn Tangkaprasert, chief inspector of Highway Police Station 1, Highway Police Division 1, revealed that Ayutthaya highway police received intelligence about illegal migrant worker transport through central Thailand. They monitored the routes until they spotted a seven-seat SUV with dark tinted windows passing between kilometer markers 54 and 55 on the outbound Phahonyothin Road in Wang Noi district, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province, and signaled the vehicle to stop for inspection.
Inside the vehicle, they found 35-year-old Naphon Thonpansakul from Mae Pa subdistrict, Mae Sot district, Tak province. Also inside were four Myanmar nationals—two men and two women—without passports or legal residence documents in the kingdom.
The driver, Naphon, admitted that he had previously worked as a passenger van driver in Tak province but his income was insufficient, so he turned to transporting migrant workers for hire.
On this trip, he was hired to pick up four Myanmar nationals from Bang Pahan district in Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province and deliver them to Samut Sakhon province, earning 500 baht per person, totaling 2,000 baht. He also admitted to doing this several times before.
Through an interpreter, the four Myanmar workers stated they had illegally entered the country via natural routes in Mae Sot district, Tak province, each paying 15,000 baht before being transported to the central region.
Authorities arrested the driver on charges of "aiding or concealing illegal immigrants." The Myanmar workers were charged with "being foreigners entering and residing in the kingdom without permission." All were taken with evidence to the Wang Noi Police Station for legal proceedings.