Of all these activities, only contraband arms trading shows a falling trend, as a result of the decline of armed conflicts in the region. All others have a tendency to increase, because of their high profitability and the ineffectiveness of law enforcement.
Increasingly these activities are linked together in networks of organized crime. Guns are exchanged for drugs. Gambling profits are invested in prostitution. Routes and systems for smuggling drugs are adapted for traffic in people. Protection networks span across the whole range of the illegal economy.
Thailand has acquired an international reputation as a country where illegal businesses can flourish because of poor law enforcement. This is bad for the nation's international image. It also attracts international illegal business to use the country as a base. Gangs of Pakistanis, Chinese Haw, Taiwanese, and Japanese Yakuza have recently been reported operating in Thailand. The Pakistani gang specializes in protection rackets, faking of passports, and drug trafficking in collaboration with gangs from Iran. The Taiwan-Chinese Haw gang is involved in drug trafficking. Bangkok has become a clearing house for the shipment of girls from China to third countries, and from south Asia into Malaysia. In the drug trade, prostitution, and illegal trafficking in humans, Thailand has become a centre of international significance.