Police Implicated In Kidnapping Foreigners (?)

[justjohn]

My girl Friday just rang me up and said it is on the Thai TV news, that a gang of police from Lumpinee Station, as well as a related gang of American Born Thais (ABT’s) were just arrested and implicated in a ring that has kidnapped and extorted money from foreigners. Is this story true, or has my gal pal lost something in the translation?

[taxexile]

where did you get the photo from , can you paste the link?

[JacknDanny]

My girl Friday just rang me up and said it is on the Thai TV news, that a gang of police from Lumpinee Station, as well as a related gang of American Born Thais (ABT’s) were just arrested and implicated in a ring that has kidnapped and extorted money from foreigners. Is this story true, or has my gal pal lost something in the translation?

Its on the front page of the Thai newspaper 'Daily News"

[justjohn]

right, the scan came from a Thai-language news paper. I sure would like to read the English version of this.

[JacknDanny]

right, the scan came from a Thai-language news paper. I sure would like to read the English version of this.

Apparantly its the same gang who kidnapped a farang from Starbucks on Thonglor about a year ago

[justjohn]

here is a link to the story online, photos and all, but it is in Thai...

http://www.dailynews.co.th/web/html/popup_...&Template=1

[meom]

Believe there was a thread last year on TV about a foreigner who claimed to be kidnapped or something.

[taxexile]

its an amazing story !

the kidnapped person is an american , 46 year old stephen hatcherson , a businessman (oil business)

from my understanding of the article , here is what happened.

stephens thai wife is driving home late one night.

she is stopped by a police road block near their condo.

they search the car for narcotics , then take her home and search the house for narcotics. the husband is home.

they find nothing , except 400,000 dollars.

they beat up the husband , tie him up and take him away , with the money.

the next morning the wife goes to lumpini police station asking where her husband is.

the police dont know what she is talking about.

she explains what happened , the police tell her to wait for any news and call them as soon as she hears anything.

she goes home and is phoned by one of the kidnappers , he wants 800,000 dollars ransom paid otherwise he cannot guarantee the safety of the husband.

the good police turn up , look at the security footage from the condo cctv and identify a high ranking police officer and other police from lumpini , and a thai american guy.

a meet is arranged on the pretext of paying off the ransom to free the husband.

the good police storm in and find the husband tied up on a bed , along with two junior lumpini cops who claim they were told to look after this falang who is involved in fake goods production , they know nothing of any kidnap , but finger the high ranking lumpini cop as the one who asked them to look after the american.

the high ranking cop has done a runner , his bank account was checked and the money from the house has already been paid in.

i hope my translation is accurate.

an amazing story .

a high ranking police officer involved in the kidnapping and ransoming of a foriegner , and being stupid enough to be caught on cctv doing it.

and he manages to do a runner before the "good cops" breaks down the door , couldnt have been tipped off , of course not.

amazing thailand. i hope this one gets picked up abroad.

[justjohn]

transliterated, from that Thai newspaper, the headline seems to mean:

“gang of police catch businessman and call for ransom”

next line:

“illegally caught American beaten up seized 400,000 taken”

from within another paragraph . . .

“25 year old half-breed Thai American”

from within another paragraph . . .

“32 Million baht ransom”

yeah, JackNDanny, it does sound like the same guys that were implicated last year, March 20th at Star Bucks at Thonglor…

That kidnap story from last year used to be posted here at ThaiVisa, it was real interesting, I had it bookmarked, but these links are all dead now . . .

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=findpost&pid=817006

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?act=findpost&pid=815875

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t76012.html

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=76012&pid=818818&mode=threaded&show=&st=&

[SJT2550]

well, I wonder if it is the same police gang plus foreigner gang that was implicated last year?

The story that was told last year, (from the March 20th 2006 Thonglor Star Bucks kidnapping), described 4 half-breed Thais and 3 regular Thai police officers.

these are allegedly the police artist sketches of those fine people - -

http://www.esnips.com/web/bkkinvestigatorsPhotos

it will be interesting to see if it really turns out to be the same group of Thai Police plus American-born Thai half-breeds that did the job last year.

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/breakingne...newsid=30031858

“Nicolas Pruksukkan” = “Nick” (see sketch of Nick at esnips link…)

…interesting…

[bangkokbilly]

To the OP, yes this a real story. For clarification, none of the police officers arrested were from Lumpini. They were from various units or stations (Crime Suppression, Huay Kwang, Chok Chai, Metro bangkok, and Immigration working at ISOC) but Lumpini was not mentioned in The Nation, Manager.com, or another Thai website article. Lumpini was the station that investigated as the original abduction happened on Suk, Soi 4. As far as being the gang that did other one last year ... if it walks like a duck - quack quack. A family friend (Thai Police General) said these guys are looking at serious time or worse. He said it depends on if they confess and give up the goods. For a farang facing many years in Thai prison, taking a deal and talking might look pretty good about now. Be interesting to see how high up the food chain this goes.

[SnakeBite]

Since the "big" guy is or was working in Immigration, it would seem he had some "inside" info on anyone that had brought in loads of cash, but hel_l, I don't know.

[karazyal]

"they find nothing , except 400,000 dollars."

Typical American, all of us have a spare 400,000 dollars hanging around - in cash!

Yeah, sure we do!

[peace743]

This is undoubtedly the same gang of Thai cops and half-breed American Borne Thais that did me last year.

I am the one that was taken at Starbucks on 20-MAR-2006

This news article tells more of what happened to Mark Hutchenson:

http://www.nationmultimedia.com/2007/04/14...es_30031870.php

My story is here:

http://www.esnips.com/web/KidnapStory/

http://www.esnips.com/web/bkkinvestigatorsPhotos

Between April and July of 2006, I tried to get the Crime Suppression Division of the Royal Thai Police to solve my case and find the bad guys. They did very little for me, and I became convinced that they were unwilling or unable to help. I also realized that the CSD’s could be part of the criminal gang, I really do not know.

In July of 2006, I finally left Thailand.

Between July and October of 2006, I sent my story, via FAX and email, to just about every journalist on the planet (essentially the same pdf file as you can read at esnips)

Most notably, I sent copies to Dan Rivers at CNN (no response); Also, I found the email addresses for every writer at the Bangkok Post, and sent them the same pdf file to all of them via email (no response) I never got any response from any journalist, Thai or Westerner.

If the Western news media and the Thai news media had done their jobs as journalists last year, perhaps the so-called “good” Thai police would have been forced to reign in the “bad” Thai police, and perhaps Mark Hutchenson would not have been kidnapped.

The roots of this gang may indeed go very deep, and their team may be very big. I was in Pol.Lt.Col. Chadchai Liamsanguan’s office one day in May of last year. He was the lead man assigned to my case. I was frustrated with the lack of progress, in spite all of the tea money that I was giving to him and other’s to do their jobs. I finally asked him straight out, “will my case ever be solved, will the bad cops ever be found and arrested?” His answer to me, in fairly good English, was essentially this - - “Their team very big, and their General more powerful than my General”. (This is Thailand…)

I am of the opinion that this is a big money operation, and that it has been going on for several years, and that perhaps more foreigners than we will ever know about have been kidnapped and extorted by this gang.

[Jimjim]

Perhaps they didn't believe your story. Did you ever recover any money? Why not get your government involved? This may be the same gang, and perhaps justice will prevail.

[sbk]

Already covered in newsclippings here. Please continue the discussion there thanks

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