Police on Tuesday arrested 18 people suspected of being members of loan shark gangs in separate raids in Bangkok and the northern province of Phrae.
In Bangkok, city police detained 10 people following raids on two houses in Bang Kapi district. Police said they had been given information that the properties were being used by members of a loan shark gang operating in the Ramkhamhaeng and Lat Phrao areas.
All of the suspects were men aged 21 to 32. Police also seized 300 loan agreement contracts, a log of clients’ repayments, four mobile phones and eight motorcycles, they said.
Pol Maj Gen Prayont Laseau, the city police’s chief investigator, said people who borrowed money from the gang,which had a reputation for violence, were charged interest at between 20% and 60% per month.
In Phrae, police detained seven men and a woman on suspicion of operating illegal loan services.
The eight were nabbed during a raid on a single property, police said. Officers also confiscated 20,000 baht in cash, six knives,two guns and ammunition, 10 mobile phones and 30 notebooks used to record customers’ information, they said.