A woman who offered luxury goods for sale on instagram was arrested after a search of her house revealed a stash of contraband at Noble Cube Housing Estate on Pattanakan road in Bangkok's Suan Luang district on Sunday.
The search of townhouse No 1104/375 by a combined police and military unit found 280 pairs of brandname shoes and 23 brandname handbags and adornments, worth about 4 million baht in total.
Prisnant Pongpipatvej, 30, the owner of the house, was arrested on a charge of smuggling goods with intent to avoid tax. The offence carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and/or a 200,000 baht fine.
The action was launched after police detectives learned the owner of that house had sold untaxed goods on instagram under the name "brandnamemafia", which had about 50,000 followers, Pol Maj Gen Surachet Hakphan, acting chief of the Patrol and Special Operations Police, said.
Police set up a sting operation, arranging to buy a Hermes handbag, a Birkin 30 Etoupe with gold hardware stamp X, for 549,000 baht. An appointment was made for them to pick up the item at the townhome in Noble Cube Housing Estate.
The search was carried out when the detectives arrived to collect the goods.