A warehouse in Pathum Thani province has just been raided by police, who found an illegal coffee-packaging plant, and THB2 million worth of fake instant Nescafé.
The police found around 89,000 packets of fake Nescafé 3-in-1 instant coffee, 280,000 empty packets waiting to be filled, 19 bags of instant coffee and 8 machines — 4 mixing and 4 packaging machines.
It appears that the instant coffee they were packaging was, in fact, coffee, just from an off-brand that they were attempting to pass off as Nescafé.
The raid was led by Pol, Maj.-Gen. Chavalit Sawaengpuet, deputy commissioner of Central Investigation Bureau, and representatives of Nestlé, according to Thai PBS.
Bangkok Post reported that they arrested 7 men and women, including 4 Laos nationals and 3 Karen hilltribe people.
The warehouse, however, had been rented out by a man named Utain Usa, who was not among the arrested workers. His home is registered as being in Chiang Rai and police are working to locate and arrest him.
Those arrested stand to face 6 months to 10 years of imprisonment, as well as fines of up to THB100,000. They will be charged with producing and selling inauthentic food products, and producing and selling food with unlicensed labels.
