Text | Amin
Editor|Zhijian
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June 9, 2006 is the 60th anniversary of the accession of Thai Emperor Bhumibol, and on this day, kings and crown princes of other monarchies come to participate in the celebration.
However, among the many royal families who came to congratulate them, Saudi Arabia was the only one missing.
It all started with a theft case in 1989, because of this jewelry theft, Saudi Arabia and Thailand broke off diplomatic relations for more than 30 years.
Next, let's follow this intricate jewelry theft case.
Gamblers smuggled home by theft
Back in 1989, Saudi Arabia became one of the richest countries in the world because of the large amount of oil mining, and after having money, Saudi Arabia built a lot of construction and began to recruit laborers around the world, of which Thailand is one of the main countries for labor export.
Most of these laborers from Thailand are engaged in low-end occupations such as construction site workers, servants, and waiters. This includes the protagonist of this theft - Janklay Taichamon.
Janklay Taichamon was born in a small village in Thailand and his family was not particularly good.
After hearing that he could get a high salary for working in Saudi Arabia, he came to Saudi Arabia with other Thais to pan for gold, hoping to become rich overnight.
Jankeli Taichamon was introduced to the Saudi palace and was mainly responsible for cleaning the palace of the king's eldest son, Prince Faisal, every day.
It stands to reason that this is a good job, far easier than working as a worker on a construction site. And with the prince for a long time, the invisible benefits must be very high.
Unfortunately, Jiang Clay is not a person who keeps to himself, he dreams of becoming rich overnight, so he began to go in and out of the casino for a long time, and finally took on a gambling debt, cornered, Jiang Clay put his greedy eyes on the prince.
Due to the long-term cleaning work in the prince's palace, Jiangklei found that these royal family members had a habit of placing their jewelry, diamonds and other valuables at will, even some valuable jewelry was never locked, which gave Jiangklei an opportunity.
At the turn of the spring and summer of 1989, according to the usual practice, the prince would definitely take his family on vacation abroad at this time. So, Jiangklei began his own theft plan.
After the prince left, Jiangley did not leave the palace after cleaning as usual, but hid in the palace's guest room and stayed until late at night.
When the inspector at the door left, Jiangklei came out of the guest room and went straight to the jewelry room. His tools of crime are simple, just a screwdriver.
After Jiangklei pried open the safe with a screwdriver, he stole a lot of valuable jewelry from it, and after the royal family's inventory, Jiangklei stole 30 kilograms of jewelry overnight, with a total value of more than 40 million US dollars.
At the time, $40 million was worth a small country's annual income. The most valuable piece of jewelry in the stolen jewelry was a 50-carat blue diamond, which was one of the main triggers for the outbreak of conflict between Saudi Arabia and Thailand.
After stealing the jewelry, Jiangklei used his identity to take it out in batches, put it in three boxes prepared in advance, and mailed it back to Thailand.
It is difficult not to attract the attention of customs officers by logistics that such a large batch of jewelry is transported back to Thailand from Saudi Arabia, but it is difficult for Jankle, who is from the bottom to be born.
When Jiangklei submitted it to the customs, he handed an envelope full of US dollars to the customs staff, and falsely claimed that it was filled with adult toys, hoping that the customs could release it smoothly.
After receiving the red envelope, the customs naturally understood that the things in it were not simple, but was bribery really useful?
It's hard to say in other countries, but it really works in Thailand. As a result, this batch of priceless jewelry was cleverly transported to his hometown by Jiangkle.
After receiving the news of his brother's receipt, Jiang Kei calmly returned to the palace and proposed to leave. He knew that if he suddenly disappeared, he would soon be exposed, and only a normal resignation procedure could not arouse the suspicion of others.
I have to say that Jiangkei is very smart, but his cleverness is used in the wrong place. Janklei thought that the jewels were just a drop in the bucket for the Saudi royal family, and there was no way to hunt him down for these jewels.
However, Janklai thought wrong this time, although these jewels are really nothing to the Saudi royal family, but they have a reason to recover this batch of jewels.
First, it is related to the face of the Saudi royal family, if the thieves are not severely punished, I am afraid that more people will follow suit in the future; Second, a 50-carat blue diamond in this batch is priceless.
In the movie "Titanic", the prototype of the "Heart of the Ocean" worn by the heroine is called "Hope", which is also a blue diamond, but only 42 carats. This means that the blue diamond stolen by Jiangklei is even bigger than "hope".
Therefore, the enraged Saudi royal family issued a notice to Thailand in 1990 on behalf of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and clearly pointed out that the main suspect in the "jewelry theft" case was Thai laborer Janklay, and the Saudi royal family hoped that the Thai police could help them arrest Jankle and recover the stolen jewelry.
Royal silence gems turn plastic
After receiving the notification of the Saudi Foreign Ministry's investigation, the Thai police did not dare to delay for a moment and immediately began to investigate. After all, Saudi Arabia was Thailand's patron at that time, and Thailand earned a large amount of foreign exchange through Saudi Arabia every year.
So, the police decided to track down the whereabouts of the jewelry first. Because jewelry from the Saudi royal family is not ordinary quality, as long as you find out who has recently sold high-quality jewelry on the market, you can use this as a clue to trace Jankle.
Sure enough, according to the information provided by the informant, someone recently sold the best jewelry at a low price on the market, and even a top-of-the-line necklace was sold for $30.
The Thai police determined that the person selling the jewelry was most likely Jankle, and they successfully arrested him.
According to Jiangklei's confession, he brought back a total of 3 boxes of jewelry, and now there are 2 boxes left, all of which are hidden in his hometown, and most of the boxes of jewelry that have been sold have been bought by Sandy, Thailand's top jeweler.
According to the clues provided by Jankle, the Thai police recovered all the 2 boxes of buried jewelry, and then negotiated with the jeweler Sandy, who was also willing to return the jewelry previously purchased.
Originally, things should have a good ending here, after all, the jewelry has been all recovered, the thieves have also been arrested, as long as the stolen jewelry is returned to the Saudi royal family, everything is over.
However, the subsequent development of this matter gradually deviated from the original track.
After the Thai police recovered the jewelry, they immediately notified the Saudi royal family and prepared to hold a return ceremony to enhance Thailand's international influence, and the Saudi royal family gladly agreed.
When the Saudi royal family prepared everything, the scene of the return ceremony was also a joy, but when the Thai police showed the returned jewelry, the Saudi royal family felt that something was wrong.
The first is that the amount is not right, the stolen jewelry is obviously 30 pounds, but the jewelry returned by the Thai police is far from this weight.
Moreover, there are a large number of forgeries made of plastic and glass in these jewels. Most importantly, the most precious blue diamond was also gone.
This silenced the Saudi royal family instantly, and the Thai police, who originally wanted to invite credit, were also overwhelmed by this situation.
"You must give us a reasonable explanation and return the genuine stolen jewelry, especially the priceless blue diamond, or you will bear the consequences."
The Thai police had to go back in dismay, and the Thai government said they would immediately set up a special investigation team to re-investigate the matter.
However, the Thai government's promises were only superficial, and they never wanted to trace the whereabouts of the jewels. As a result, the matter has been delayed again and again.
At the same time, the Saudis also clearly felt that Thailand was not concerned about the matter, so they sent their own agents to secretly investigate.
The agent was killed, and the royal family was utterly furious
This time, Saudi Arabia sent two groups of people. One is a clear line headed by diplomats to investigate cases in an official manner; The other is the dark line headed by the agent, responsible for secretly tracking down clues and doing things that are difficult to deal with on the bright side.
According to the analysis of the investigation report submitted by the Thai police, diplomat Koja is most likely made by the jeweler Sandy who returned the jewelry at that time, and combined with the attitude of the Thai government, he guessed that Sandy may have been directed.
In the course of his investigation, Jako found some Thai media reports that contained photos of jewels that closely resembled the jewels lost by the Saudi royal family. This is also from the side, the jewelry drop is definitely inseparable from the Thai government.
As soon as the Saudi royal family seized the clues and was preparing to continue the investigation, the incident began to develop in a more bizarre direction.
A diplomat in the open line was shot dead while investigating a "jewelry theft," but Thai police hastily closed the case, saying it was a murder caused by a personal dispute.
In less than a month, three more Saudi diplomats were shot dead in the streets of Thailand, as if someone deliberately did not want the Saudi investigation to continue.
Four consecutive diplomats were killed while investigating the "jewelry theft case", but the Thai police have never been able to catch the murderer, which inevitably casts a shadow over the whole incident.
Later, according to Saudi recollections, the four diplomats exchanged information with the agents the night before they were killed, and agreed to hand over the items the next day, which were most likely evidence of Thai jewelry, but with the killing of the three diplomats, the whole case once again reached an impasse.
Things got to this point, and diplomat Koja could only pin his hopes on the agent he was about to meet. Coincidentally, the Saudi agent also mysteriously disappeared.
As the people investigating the case disappeared one by one, Koja deeply felt that this matter was not simple.
However, the Thai police believe that all these things are not related, but individual homicides. How can you know if you don't investigate it carefully? Isn't the Thai police trying to cover up?
From jewelry theft, to the return of counterfeit jewelry in Thailand, to the killing of all investigators, Thailand has successfully annoyed Saudi Arabia.
As a result, Saudi Arabia announced that its diplomatic rank with Thailand was downgraded from "ambassador" to "chargé d'affaires" and that work visas for Thai workers would be suspended indefinitely.
As a result, Thailand, which was originally a Saudi labor exporter, has plummeted the number of migrant workers from 250,000 to less than 10,000, and Saudi Arabia has also withdrawn its investment in Thailand, which has reduced the Thai government's foreign exchange earnings by tens of billions.
Forced to find someone to back the pot
Faced with the wrath of the Saudi royal family, Thailand had to reverse the previous investigation and start the investigation anew, but it was difficult for them to gain the trust of the Saudi royal family.
In the end, Saudi Arabia chose to spend a lot of money to ask the CIA to intervene in the investigation, but the result was still a failure. In this regard, the CIA left only one meaningful sentence.
"The Thai government's water is too deep to understand."
Thailand has never admitted that they lost their jewelry, killed Saudi agents and diplomats, and there is no corruption, but the case still needs an explanation.
After several years of investigation, Thailand finally announced that the "jewelry theft case" had been solved.
The initiator of this case is Jiangklei, and the bag loss incident is all committed by jeweler Sandy. So where are Sandy? Sorry, he was unfortunately killed by a gang of bandits before solving the case.
A total of 15 bandits who killed Sandy have been captured by the Thai police. As for the priceless blue diamond, they really didn't find it.
As the old saying goes, if you want to round out a lie, fill it with countless lies.
The Saudi royal family has never believed Thailand's rhetoric, believing that there must be a complex relationship behind this case, and there may even be a powerful force manipulating it.
summary
Although so many years have passed and Thailand and Saudi Arabia are now back together, the lost blue diamond has always been a thorn in the heart of the Saudi royal family, and Thailand's behavior is really confusing.
Thailand can obviously hug Saudi Arabia's lap to boost the country's economy, but because some jewelry annoyed Saudi Arabia, so that it was sanctioned by Saudi Arabia, it can be said that it picked up sesame seeds and lost watermelons.
Therefore, people must not be greedy, they are always their own, and if they are deceived by other means, there will always be a day when they are exposed.