On Thursday, October 15, Thai authorities discovered an illegal cross-border internet cable in Sangkhla Buri District, Kanchanaburi Province, near the Thai-Myanmar border. After detecting abnormal internet traffic originating from two local houses, officers conducted a search and uncovered the 350-meter cable inside one of the properties. The line stretched directly across the border into Myanmar, where it is suspected of supplying internet access to scam compounds around the Three Pagodas Pass area. The homeowner has been charged with illegally providing telecommunications services, and authorities are continuing checks along the border.
Much like Myawaddy, the Three Pagodas Pass region has seen a clustering of cyber-scam operations. As Thai authorities ramped up crackdowns in recent years by cutting off cross-border electricity, fuel, and internet connections, targeted compounds have increasingly resorted to covert physical lines and satellite services like Starlink to stay online. This has inadvertently fostered a shadow supply chain along border settlements.
For residents and cross-border businesses operating in adjacent Thai border zones, the incident serves as a clear warning. Facilitating infrastructure—whether by subleasing bandwidth, routing cables, or reselling utility services to suspected compound operators—can now lead to criminal charges, as this homeowner has just found out.
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