The Thai Navy chased down a ship allegedly smuggling thousands of cigarettes off the southern Thai coast.

Footage shows the patrol gunboat HTMS Laemsing intercepting the smaller vessel, The One 3, some nine miles off the Golok River near Songkhla province on October 21.

Authorities inspected the ship and found 505 boxes of cigarettes onboard. They also arrested three Thai crew members and a foreign individual hiding in the engine room. The foreign sailor was reportedly not listed in the departure notice.

Vice Admiral Narate Wongtrakoon, director of the Thai Maritime Enforcement Command Centre Region 2, said in an October 22 press conference: 'The ship was supposed to be loaded with 1,050 boxes of smuggled cigarettes that did not go through customs procedures. However, only 505 boxes were found. The missing 545 boxes are believed to have been already delivered to customers.'

He added that the navy confiscated 158 million THB (3.6 million GBP) of cigarettes in the operation.

The suspects will face charges for allegedly violating the Navigation in Thai Waters Act, the Maritime Labour Act, the Customs Act, the Anti-Human Trafficking Act, and the Immigration Act.

They were handed over to the inquiry officer at Mueang Songkhla Police Station for further legal action. Police said they were tracking down others involved in the operation.

Cigarette smuggling in Thailand is driven by high local taxes on tobacco products, which make smuggled cigarettes cheaper and attractive to consumers.

Smugglers often bring cigarettes from neighboring countries like Cambodia, Laos, and Malaysia, using sophisticated networks to evade border controls.

Thai Tobacco Trade Association (TTTA) director Thanyasarun Sangthong, citing 2022 TTTA data, said online trade of illegal tobacco grew by 97 per cent in July to September 2022 alone. The spike is attributed to contraband cigarettes smuggled through the border to avoid tax duty.

(1 GBP = 43.84 THB)