A couple of points.
I was in Ranong yesterday and on the way down I kept thinking about the quote from The Tourist Police chief reported in Jambo's post above. Certainly, it was in the news last year the focus was being directed to Ranong province in the attempt to stamp out drug smuggling.
But this bus was on its way TO Ranong. A pretty dumb farang who thinks it'll be worthwhile smuggling ya ba into Burma, where most of it is produced anyway. Not a lot of money to be made, methinks. Much better to search them on their way back down to Phuket.
Also, I used my usual taxi/boat service. The guy who picks me up is either ex Ranong imm, or very close to them. I was asking him what he thought. His view was that it was nothing to do with imm. Just the regualr and tourist police trying to make some money. He was not amused, but was reluctant to talk too much to me about it.
For the record, I was 2 days early this time for various reasons, and the officer, who knows me well and has fined me for overstay quite a few times before, just smiled and remarked that I was early this time. I didn't feel like saying "look at what happened a week or so ago!!!!"