40+ sellers arrested, overpriced medical masks
Police Major General Nattasak Chownasai from the Consumer Protection Police Division (CPPD) gave orders to Police Colonel Chanannant Sarotthawanpas and other related officials from the Ministry of Commerce and the Department of Internal Trade to set up protection measures against highly overpriced medical masks sellers. 6 teams were set up and together they were able to arrest 40 sellers in Bangkok on 3 March 2020.
The teams went across Thailand’s capital in search of overpriced medical masks sellers. Together they arrested 40 cases. Evidence includes 11,993 medical masks all were being sold about 10 times the market price before the Coronavirus situation started. Officials also arrested 2 other suspects selling overpriced medical masks via online with evidence including 4,350 medical masks worth about 66,000 THB. The sellers were charged with selling the medical masks at overpriced price tags, selling items without clearly displaying the price, and hoarding controlled products without reasonable purposes. All of the suspects have been sent to the CPPD for further prosecution.
Before the big arrest, the CDDP went to inspect 7 pharmacies in Bangkok and discovered that 2 were not clearly displaying the price of medical masks and they were overpricing the masks. The 2 sellers have been arrested and sent to the Bangkok Noi Police for further prosecution.
As for the update on used medical masks being recycled and resold as brand new masks, One 31 Channel reported that there were 3 arrests made, Jintana Namvichai, Wiraporn Thongsantia, and Pinwalach Jamradsri. These 3 will wash the used masks and iron the masks to lay flat before placing them into paper boxes to look brand new. The suspects have admitted that over 200,000 used medical masks have been sold and put out onto the market. The 3 sold the masks at a price of 3 THB per mask. The suspects claim that usually, they don’t plan to do things like this, but because so many consumers were searching for medical masks they decided to recycle used masks and sell them to buyers believing it was new masks. The product is easy to sell and they didn’t realize it was illegal.
FB Caption: Medical masks are being sold at more than 10X the market price before the Coronavirus situation started.
Source: Khaosod, CPPD, One31, Kapook
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