Thai Border Police Kidnap Gang Abducts, Tortures, And Extorts Thai People

[kat]

I'm glad this story broke, but I feel sorrow that it had to be for a hi-so Thai millionaire. I feel sorrow, because this will not change things one bit for the countless Burmese and stateless people who meet fates much worse that this in complete obscurity and indifference.

[Jai Dee]

More charges levelled against border police gang

Four groups of people came forward yesterday to outline cases to Bang Phlat police in Bangkok that they were also victims of the alleged gang led by "rogue" border police officer Captain Nat Chonnitiwanich.

The city police chief said the gang allegedly had the support of senior officers, but vowed the investigation should nevertheless yield results within three days.

A young couple from Surat Thani, identified only as Pongchai and Nareumol, told police that Nat and three or four accomplices broke into their home on August 4 last year, claiming to have found seven kilograms of marijuana there. Despite their denial, the team seized their Toyota pick-up truck as evidence and took the pair to a bungalow in Tambon Bang Kung in Muang Surat Thani.

The couple claimed they saw 20 other victims assaulted at the bungalow. They said they were also beaten and forced to make a confession "or be killed".

They were then taken to Bangkok and forced to participate in a ya ba "sting" operation in the Phaholyothin area, before being sent to the Narcotics Suppression Bureau along with the "evidence" truck.

The narcotics bureau submitted the case to Surat Thani Court, but the couple's pick-up was not sent to the Narcotics Control Office Region 8 as Nat claimed, they said. The couple later learned via news reports about the abduction last week of a Bangkok divorcee their truck was one of two vehicles used in that crime.

They said they wanted their truck back and evidence of Nat and his team's alleged abuse of authority from Bangkok police, so they could ask Surat Thani Court to postpone its ruling, due to be delivered today.

A second pair of "victims", Krisada and Natthapat Plerng-songkhro, told police Nat and his team raided their home on April 24, 2005, in Muang Pathum Thani and robbed them of Bt540,000 in cash, gold ornaments weighing 30 baht and a Ruger rifle. The team locked Natthapat in the home with her sister and nephew, before speeding off.

Natthapat later lodged a complaint with Pakkhlong Rangsit police, saying a rogue police gang robbed them. But officers at the station only agreed to put the complaint on their records. Her family was then reportedly stalked by local police because of suspicions of drug trafficking. So they decided to move to Nonthaburi's Pak Kret district.

Later, another team of police raided their Pak Kret home and arrested her husband on a bogus charge of possessing three ya ba tablets, Natthapat said. Her husband is still fighting the case.

Natthapat identified Nat from a picture, and said he was the person who held a gun to her head during the alleged robbery.

Bang Phlat police suggested they also file a complaint with Pathum Thani police, where the alleged robbery took place.

The third case took place in Prachuap Khiri Khan on December 17. Parinda Thongloy, 40, said her ex-husband Monchai Khemthong, 46, was charged by Nat and his gang with having 1,400 ya ba tablets in his possession.

Still on good terms after a divorce, she insisted her ex-husband, who works as a fish delivery-man, never had anything to do with drugs. She claimed the gang beat up Monchai and forced him at gunpoint to "confess" at a motel in Bang Saphan Yai. She showed pictures of Monchai's injuries and said he was in the provincial prison.

The fourth case came from a Bangkok-based silver jewellery seller. Juthaporn Noorod, 34, showed up at the police station with her two-month-old baby and lawyer Kwanchai Chotiphan. She accused Nat and his team of abduction, bogus drug charges and extortion. She said her nephew Pairat Meunpol, 25, was arrested in Thung Song district and violently beaten by Nat's team until he "confessed" to possession 200 ya ba tablets and implicated Juthaporn as an accomplice.

On February 4 last year, Nat's team brought Pairat to Bangkok to lure Juthaporn, then two-months pregnant, out to Soi Wat Muang on Petchkasem Road. She said the team accused her of drug trafficking and forced 800 ya ba tablets on her person. The team then took her to the Green Inn Hotel in Petchkasem Soi 81 and tortured her with electric shocks all night, despite her plea of pregnancy, until she "confessed". Pairat and Juthaporn were then taken to Nong Khai, where the team extorted Bt100,000 and took the gold ornaments Juthaporn had on, claiming they needed them to fund a sting operation. She said nothing was returned.

On February 8, the two were sent to the Narcotics Control Bureau to face drug charges. Her nephew "confessed" to the charges due to lack of money to fight the case, but Juthamas maintained innocence. She was detained at Thon Buri Special Prison where she gave birth to her child on October 11, before the court acquitted her on October 29.

National police chief Seripisut Temiyavej said he had assigned deputy police chief Pol Gen Thani Somboonsap to oversee the case. He instructed investigators to review all crimes the suspects were allegedly involved in. He also ordered them to check on Nat's claim he has shared some of the proceeds of his crimes with his supervisors.

Seripisut said this abuse of authority should be severely punished.

Metropolitan police chief Assawin Kwanmuang said he met yesterday with investigators looking into the alleged kidnapping and believed existing evidence should be sufficient for public prosecutors.

Assawin said the father of the border police officer, currently hiding in Chumphon, had contacted Bang Phlat police to arrange his son's surrender.

A woman who was initially identified as an accomplice also turned herself in, claiming she was forced to let the gang use her bank account - a claim the police said sounded convincing.

Assawin has also instructed investigators to include the team's supervisors because the investigation is pointing towards the team getting support from superiors.

News of the kidnapping case, allegedly led by the Chumphon-based border police, gained huge public attention after Bangkok businesswoman Piengjit Peung-on said she was abducted and forced to pay more than Bt8 million before her release last Wednesday.

Source: The Nation - 29 January 2008

[adjan jb]

They were taken to the border-police camp, where they were interrogated about drugs. Wanpen said she had been given electric shocks on the knees and legs for 15 minutes after denying anything to do with drugs.

Saijai told her she had witnessed the torture

Is it torture or is it an "alternative" questioning technique ?

[TAWP]

..............before one of the numerous criminals they harbor ends up killing a celebrity or relative of/or a very important personality................

As if a non celebrity's life is of any less value?????

In Thailand it most definitely has.

[Jai Dee]

Bangkok-based silver jewellery seller Juthaporn Noorod, 34, tells reporters yesterday how a team of border police officers, led by Captain Nat Chonniti-wanich, framed her for drug trafficking.

Source: The Nation - 29 January 2008

[judgedredd]

My God, even cigarettes come with a warning label. Will travel agents and business advisory boards start warning about the dangers of Thailand, I wonder?

Perhaps, at some point, the Thai Government will realize that Bad Police, Bad Laws, and Total Corruption drives away both tourism and serious “hard” (industrial and infrastructure) foreign investment.

Even in the Philippines, which is arguably a bigger hel_l-hole than Thailand, they have figured out that they must afford some protection to both their own citizens and to foreigners if they want to attract outside investment.

The Philippines, in my opinion, is still more dangerous for foreigners, (and for its own people) than Thailand. However, the Philippines is beating Thailand in attracting new industrial development. Why?

The answer - - Protected Free Trade Zones. The Phils has 49 areas designated as FTZ’s. The most developed is Subic Bay. In the FTZ’s, foreigners can own land, and invest and operate businesses as they see fit. If a foreign company fabricates a product for export in an FTZ, it pays no customs duties or taxes. In the FTZ’s, there is essentially zero corruption and extortion. Of course, outside the FTZ, everybody has his or her hands out, business as usual, worse than Thailand.

Thailand is surrounded by so many Asian models that it could emulate. Singapore’s well-developed government organizations, South Korea’s zero-corruption police, and the FTZ’s of the Philippines.

I suppose that the 40 or so Thai-Chinese families that actually run Thailand would change the place, if they were dissatisfied with it . . . Somebody at the top must be profiting from Bad Police and Total Corruption, or the current sad state of affairs would not continue.

Of course, just maybe, it could be that the Thai Police have really and truly screwed up this time. When a Thai cop executes a tourist with a point-blank shot to the head, or when the Thai cops kidnap and rob a foreigner, I sincerely believe that most Thai people do not care. So what, it is just another foreigner. However, this time, a high-society “nice” upper crust Thai lady was abused by the little brown-shirted savages. Perhaps things will actually begin to change now, just maybe . . .

Judge Dredd

[Tony Clifton]

..............before one of the numerous criminals they harbor ends up killing a celebrity or relative of/or a very important personality................

As if a non celebrity's life is of any less value?????

You know that's not what I meant.

[judgedredd]

Tony, while that is not exactly what you meant, it is a practical observation, don’t you agree? The Thai Police make their living by extracting small money from street merchants and taking big money from yaba dealers. The Thai cops brutally extort the average Thai person. As we have seen recently, a Thai cop was able to execute a tourist with a point-blank shot to the head, and the response from the average Thai person was “sure, he did it”.

However, in this most recent series of incidents by the Border Police, a high-society Thai lady was abused by the little brown-shirted savages. And that is where your observation is spot on. She may not be a “celebrity”, but she is well-placed in Thai society, and “who” you are in Thailand matters.

This case may well be the impetus to spark change.

Judge Dredd

[geriatrickid]

Obviously, the conduct is inexcusable. However, there have to be some quasi honest law enforcement folks around since these people were arrested. Judgedredd brings up some observations that are worth a comment;

The Thai Police make their living by extracting small money from street merchants and taking big money from yaba dealers. The Thai cops brutally extort the average Thai person.

I think they follow the same M.O. as the unreformed police departmants of the west followed in that they targeted criminals, both bigwigs and petty. After all, what's a crook going to do? Can't very well say, hey my drug business is being squeezed. I don't think the "average" Thai was brutally exploited as there has been an understanding until recent times to be discreet and not to exploit the "little" people. Doesn't make sense from a larceny perspective either. Why bother with a 200B take when you can go after 20,000B.

What we may be seeing now is that the pot has boiled over. After years of getting away with discrete corruption, the limits have been stretched to the point of ripping apart. The rogue mentality will eventually force a serious decisive response. So in that sense, the recent events are not overly bad since some good may come of them.

As we have seen recently, a Thai cop was able to execute a tourist with a point-blank shot to the head, and the response from the average Thai person was "sure, he did it". Well, that case is still under investigation. Bit hasty to come to that conclusion, although the events do highlight an endemic lack of dicipline at the very least. I don't think the average thai is any different than the average westerner when something like that happens. If it doesn't have a direct impact, they don't really care because they have their own problems and lives to live.

she is well-placed in Thai society, and "who" you are in Thailand matters.

This case may well be the impetus to spark change.

On this we agree. I'd add though that the utter stupidity of taking the kids will put even the most corrupt officials on edge. There is a cultural understanding in Thailand that one does not hurt kids. Do that and you suffer the blowback.

[Jai Dee]

Police issue additional arrest warrant in rogue border patrol case

Bangkok Police Commander, Police Major General Assawin Kwanmuang (อัศวิน ขวัญเมือง) stated after meeting with superior to Police Captain Nut Cholnithiwanich (ณัฎฐ์ ชลนิธิวณิชย์), whom is the leader of a gang of rogue border patrol officers which kidnapped and extorted a widowed millionaire that he has been informed that the group was instated as an anti-drug task force between the dates of January 17-25.

The case that Police Captain Nut’s group is being held for took place on January 20th and thus is considered an offense against the border patrol as the group were working against their duties at the time.

Police Major General Assawin also revealed that authorities have issued an additional arrest warrant for Police Sergeant Major Anusit Natesuwan (อนุสิทธิ์ เนตรสุวรรณ) who is currently fleeing police. No pictures of Police Sergeant Major Anusit are yet available and one has been requested from his headquarters.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 30 January 2008

[Jai Dee]

Police beat us into confessing: jailed drug pair

Two more people jailed for drug trafficking yesterday claimed they were beaten into confessing by a group of border police officers led by Captain Nat Chonniti-wanich.

Pranom Changkham, 44, has filed a complaint with the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) claiming the Chumphon-based border police had assaulted her and falsely charged her with possessing 64 yaba tablets.

ONCB officials were given permission to interview her by Corrections Department deputy director-general Police Colonel Phokhapibul Phoratranant and Samut Prakan Prison director Patikhom Wongsa.

The former food vendor said undercover police officers broke into her home in a Bang Bua Thong flat in Samut Prakan's Phra Pradaeng district on October 31 last year.

They claimed a drug suspect, Veera Boonchom, 36, had implicated Pranom as a drug dealer. Finding no drugs in the flat, the officers took Pranom to a "safe house" and put her in a room.

They forced her to kneel, handcuffed her hands behind her back and covered her head with a plastic bag, she alleged. One officer, sat on a table, squeezed her neck with his legs from behind to force her to confess that police found yaba in her underwear.

"They were all southerners. I couldn't understand what they said and what their names were but I remember the leader being tall and fair-skinned." Pranom said. "I begged them not to take Bt20,000 I had in a bank account because I needed it for my three children. I told them I was illiterate and made my living by selling pad-thai noodles in front of Wat Nang Hong.

"I said I was not involved in the drug trade and that I knew the guy who implicated me only by the fact that he was my cousin's boyfriend."

The officers also divided yaba tablets into three piles: one for Pranom, another 185-tablet pile for Veera and the other 48-tablet pile for a woman identified as Mon, she said. The three were then transferred to Phra Pradaeng police station.

After Pranom was put behind bars, she told her boyfriend about the false charge so that he could get a lawyer to help her file a compliant with the ONCB.

Veera said the woman known only as Mon - whom he later learned was arrested by the same team and forced to participate in a police sting operation - called him on October 30 last year saying she needed a bag of yaba, so he quoted a price of Bt38,000 per bag. But he had to have the money first.

Next morning when Veera went to pick up the money, he and his girlfriend were arrested by seven officers and taken to a hotel. Veera said he was assaulted and his head was covered with a plastic bag.

He told police the drug was in a wooded area behind his home in Phra Pradaeng's Samrong Tai, despite the fact that he did not have any drugs.

However, when they went there, the police changed their minds about going into the soi for fear Veera's relatives would attack them. So they took him back to the hotel and beat him some more.

The officers forced Veera to take them to Pranom - from whom he reportedly bought yaba at Bt150 a tablet before selling it at Bt200. After a search of Pranom's place yielded nothing, they were taken to a "safe house" in Bangkok's Phyathai area.

He said the police threatened to charge him and his girlfriend with possessing 400 yaba tablets. He begged for mercy, saying their kids would have no parents.

The police said one of them had to face a charge and the other could go, so Veera confessed and was taken to the police station. He said the leader of the plainclothes officers was named Nat.

Source: The Nation - 30 January 2008

[sonnyJ]

..............before one of the numerous criminals they harbor ends up killing a celebrity or relative of/or a very important personality................

As if a non celebrity's life is of any less value?????

You know that's not what I meant.

Don't worry Tony, some of us do understand your point.

I should add that there should be some facesaving and maybe even some lives before it all hits the fan. I don't believe it will happen though.

[kat]

Obviously, the conduct is inexcusable. However, there have to be some quasi honest law enforcement folks around since these people were arrested. Judgedredd brings up some observations that are worth a comment;

The Thai Police make their living by extracting small money from street merchants and taking big money from yaba dealers. The Thai cops brutally extort the average Thai person.

I think they follow the same M.O. as the unreformed police departmants of the west followed in that they targeted criminals, both bigwigs and petty. After all, what's a crook going to do? Can't very well say, hey my drug business is being squeezed. I don't think the "average" Thai was brutally exploited as there has been an understanding until recent times to be discreet and not to exploit the "little" people. Doesn't make sense from a larceny perspective either. Why bother with a 200B take when you can go after 20,000B.

What we may be seeing now is that the pot has boiled over. After years of getting away with discrete corruption, the limits have been stretched to the point of ripping apart. The rogue mentality will eventually force a serious decisive response. So in that sense, the recent events are not overly bad since some good may come of them.

Your comments that I underlined above are incorrect. The police department in Thailand has a long and well-known history of intimidation, exploitation, extortion, and murder of the "little man", or non-criminals. In fact, the very origins of the police in Thailand stem from "big man" and "little man" forms of patronage and power. Of course there are good, lone cops - you can probably find individual good people caught up in bad organizations and forms of governance in almost every aspect of history, including the Nazis. You can also find corrupt cops and police departments in the west, especially during different periods in their historical development, as your point suggests above. However you are wrong that the Modus Operandi is the same. The Thai police have a long and documented path of especially framing the "little guy" and outsiders with impunity. In recent events, it has now been widely reported that more than half of the extra-judicial victims of the "War on Drugs" were innocent, with no ties to the drug world. There are famous cases of innocent people being framed for crimes that they did not commit, and in some cases the fall person for crimes committed by the police. On this very thread there are more recent cases of alleged innocent people being set up, which is not uncommon especially if they refuse to pay bribes on legal businesses, which is not a new development or story about the Thai police. Legal meter and motorcycle taxis have a long history of paying extra "tax" to the police. There have also been many cases which have been listed on another active thread, as well as suggested reading and links to highly-respected researchers and academics, so the information is out there and I won't bother repeating it. I have included a link to another high-profile case involving the police which I believe still hasn't been completely resolved.

So no, this is not new, and it is not suddenly "boiling over" as you state.

http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html...75AC0A962958260

Saudi Envoy Helps Expose a Thai Crime Group: The Police

By PHILIP SHENON,

Published: September 19, 1994

The top Saudi Arabian diplomat in Thailand, Mohammed Said Khoja, reached across his desk to a zippered black bag, opened it and carefully removed his gun. The chrome-plated .38-caliber Smith & Wesson is always at his side.

Does he need protection from international terrorists? No, Mr. Khoja explained, cradling the pistol in one hand. He needs protection from the national police of Thailand, a remarkable assertion that few people in Thailand would dispute.

"The police here are bigger than the Government itself," the 60-year-old diplomat whispered. "I am a Muslim, and I stay because I feel I am fighting the devils."

After four years of digging and prodding, Mr. Khoja is the man largely responsible for unearthing the biggest scandal in the history of the Thai national police, a saga that begins with the theft of more than $20 million worth of jewels from a Saudi prince and ends with a trail of blood in the streets of Bangkok.

At least 18 police officers have been implicated in the gems case, including two police generals who were dismissed this month. Several killings have been linked to the theft.

The newest victims are the wife and 14-year-old son of the Government's principal witness, who were found dead last month, bloodied and beaten, in their Mercedes outside Bangkok. The witness, a Bangkok jeweler, is in hiding.

Mr. Khoja, whose tenacity appears to have finally forced the Thai Government to act, said he was convinced that Thai police commanders were also behind the killing of three Saudi diplomats here in 1990. They were shot, he said, after learning the names of the gem thieves.

To protest Bangkok's long inaction in the gems case, Saudi Arabia has cut off work permits to more than 250,000 Thai guest workers, depriving the economy here of billions of dollars a year. About 20,000 Thai workers remain in Saudi Arabia.

Yet whatever the damage to the economy and to Thailand's reputation, Mr. Khoja has become a hero to many Thais who admire his willingness to risk his own safety to expose what is widely understood to be the largest criminal organization in Thailand: the Royal Thai Police.

The saga of the Saudi gems began in 1989 in Riyadh, the Saudi capital, in the palace of Prince Faisal, son of King Fahd. The palace employed a Thai house servant, Kriangkrai Taechamong, whose job included cleaning the room where the Prince and his family stored their jewels.

When the Prince took a vacation abroad, the servant disabled the electronic alarm and stole nearly 200 pounds of gems and jewelry. Mr. Kraingkrai returned to Thailand and was quickly seized by the Thai police, who had been alerted by the Saudis. He was sentenced to five years in prison.

A box filled with jewels was initially returned to the Saudis. But the Prince and his family soon determined that nearly 80 percent of the jewels had disappeared. Some had been replaced by crude fakes.

Mr. Khoja -- whose title is charge d'affaires, not ambassador, because Saudi Arabia downgraded relations with Thailand -- was sent here in 1990. A 35-year veteran of the Saudi diplomatic corps, he volunteered for the job.

"Here is the reason," he said, dropping onto his desk a photo of bloodied corpse of Fahd al-Bahli, one of the three diplomats killed in 1990. "He was one of my students in the diplomatic institute. He had three young sons. They are now orphans."

Mr. Khoja said he would remain here until the perpetrators are put behind bars "or at least until their names and their lives are ruined."

[judgedredd]

Kat, nice work reporting the Saudi gem theft. At 20 Million USD, in 1990 dollars, that may be the largest single take ever for the Thai Police. And as you point out, it has cost the Thai people dearly, and by extension, the Thai Government, by preventing 250,000 Thai guest workers from entering the Saudi Kingdom.

Is there a Statute of Limitations? Do the Thai Police simply have to wait this one out a few more years?

Judge Dredd

[kat]

Yeah, that was a huge case in the Kingdom regarding a high profile foreigner - Saudi royalty. The case dragged on for so long that I am a bit foggy on the upshot, but a high-ranking police officer was finally arrested in 2005 or 2006. I don't think the murders of the three Saudi diplomats were ever "solved".

*spelling

Edited January 31, 2008 by kat

[PadThaiGuy]

...and remember?..... some Thai Hi_So types were photographed wearing the stolen Saudi Gems.

The pictures appeared in the social pages of the Bangkok Post.

[kat]

Remarkable, isn't it? I have never seen that but heard about it.

[PadThaiGuy]

I think it was some Generals wife... said they were just copies of the real thing......Makes one wonder, how did she get copies made of stolen Saudi Gems?

[Pepe']

Corruption is the standard operating everywhere.

The Thai seasonings just make a quite interesting dish...

[LaoPo]

Police beat us into confessing: jailed drug pair

Two more people jailed for drug trafficking yesterday claimed they were beaten into confessing by a group of border police officers led by Captain Nat Chonniti-wanich.

Pranom Changkham, 44, has filed a complaint with the Office of Narcotics Control Board (ONCB) claiming the Chumphon-based border police had assaulted her and falsely charged her with possessing 64 yaba tablets.

ONCB officials were given permission to interview her by Corrections Department deputy director-general Police Colonel Phokhapibul Phoratranant and Samut Prakan Prison director Patikhom Wongsa.

The former food vendor said undercover police officers broke into her home in a Bang Bua Thong flat in Samut Prakan's Phra Pradaeng district on October 31 last year.

They claimed a drug suspect, Veera Boonchom, 36, had implicated Pranom as a drug dealer. Finding no drugs in the flat, the officers took Pranom to a "safe house" and put her in a room.

They forced her to kneel, handcuffed her hands behind her back and covered her head with a plastic bag, she alleged. One officer, sat on a table, squeezed her neck with his legs from behind to force her to confess that police found yaba in her underwear.

"They were all southerners. I couldn't understand what they said and what their names were but I remember the leader being tall and fair-skinned." Pranom said. "I begged them not to take Bt20,000 I had in a bank account because I needed it for my three children. I told them I was illiterate and made my living by selling pad-thai noodles in front of Wat Nang Hong.

"I said I was not involved in the drug trade and that I knew the guy who implicated me only by the fact that he was my cousin's boyfriend."

The officers also divided yaba tablets into three piles: one for Pranom, another 185-tablet pile for Veera and the other 48-tablet pile for a woman identified as Mon, she said. The three were then transferred to Phra Pradaeng police station.

After Pranom was put behind bars, she told her boyfriend about the false charge so that he could get a lawyer to help her file a compliant with the ONCB.

Veera said the woman known only as Mon - whom he later learned was arrested by the same team and forced to participate in a police sting operation - called him on October 30 last year saying she needed a bag of yaba, so he quoted a price of Bt38,000 per bag. But he had to have the money first.

Next morning when Veera went to pick up the money, he and his girlfriend were arrested by seven officers and taken to a hotel. Veera said he was assaulted and his head was covered with a plastic bag.

He told police the drug was in a wooded area behind his home in Phra Pradaeng's Samrong Tai, despite the fact that he did not have any drugs.

However, when they went there, the police changed their minds about going into the soi for fear Veera's relatives would attack them. So they took him back to the hotel and beat him some more.

The officers forced Veera to take them to Pranom - from whom he reportedly bought yaba at Bt150 a tablet before selling it at Bt200. After a search of Pranom's place yielded nothing, they were taken to a "safe house" in Bangkok's Phyathai area.

He said the police threatened to charge him and his girlfriend with possessing 400 yaba tablets. He begged for mercy, saying their kids would have no parents.

The police said one of them had to face a charge and the other could go, so Veera confessed and was taken to the police station. He said the leader of the plainclothes officers was named Nat.

Source: The Nation - 30 January 2008

Back on topic....

Franz Kafka springs to mind

What a horrible experience for all the victims.

LaoPo

[judgedredd]

An “on-topic” misuse of statistics - -

Here you go, try this:

Set your Google search engine to “All web pages”, and “safe search OFF”

Then enter this search expression into Google exactly like this - -

"Kidnapped" + "Thai Police" (with quotation marks)

If you try that Google search, you will get 8,690 discreet web page hits. I would have guessed that it would have only been a few dozen hits until I tried it.

Is this a misuse of statistics? Sure, of course it is, but it is also an eye-opener.

In fairness, you can refine your Google search like this:

"Kidnapped by the Thai Police" (with quotation marks)

If you try that Google search, you will get only 6 discreet web page hits. I would have guessed that it would have been more, which indicates to me, based on just the stories that I know about, that the International mainstream press just does not care about stories of the Thai Police operating kidnapping gangs.

However, all of my Googling led me to find an old Thai Visa story that I had read before, but had forgotten about. Same stuff, different victim, different day:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/lofiversion/...hp/t130483.html

Judge Dredd

[Jai Dee]

Pol. Lt. Col. Surakit dismissed after several charges

The Royal Thai Police Spokesman, Pol. Lt. Gen. Phongphat Phongcharoen (พงศพัศ พงษ์เจริญ), stated after interrogating the Deputy Director of the 41st Border Patrol Police, Pol. Lt. Col. Surakit Klaiudom (สุรกิตติ์ คล้ายอุดม), that the Royal Thai Police Commissioner-General, Pol. Gen. Seripisuth Temiyavej (เสรีพิศุทธ์ เตมียาเวส), has ordered for Pol. Lt. Col. Surakit to be dismissed immediately.

Pol. Lt. Col. Surakit has been charged with several cases involving kidnapping and coercion, and he is considered to be the leader of the syndicate.

Eight more people across the country have filed charges against the gang. The Royal Thai Police has agreed to give compensations if any of the plaintiffs decide to take their matters to the Civil Court. Police officials have also ordered for the victims' protection.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 31 January 2008

[Jai Dee]

Deputy chief of border patrol unit surrenders, charged, sacked

The deputy chief of the 41st Border Patrol Police (BPP) unit, Surakit Klai-udom, was dismissed from the force yesterday after he surrendered to answer charges of kidnapping and extortion. An arrest warrant was issued for him on Tuesday over the abduction and ransom of garment factory owner Piangjit Pueng-on and her two sons.

Pol Lt-Col Surakit, 50, denied the charges and any link with the gang allegedly led by Nat Chonnithiwanit rounded up in Bangkok on Friday. The gang is based in Chumphon province, but operated in Bangkok.

More from the Bangkok Post here.

[judgedredd]

JaiDee, that is interesting. You reported the Thai media as saying - -

“The Royal Thai Police has agreed to give compensations if any of the plaintiffs decide to take their matters to the Civil Court.”

Now, do you suppose that offer is only for Thai victims and only for this case? How about for foreigners that have been kidnapped and robbed by the Thai Police?

For example, if my friend, Mr. Mark Hutchenson, decided to return to Thailand and ask for the $400,000-USD that the Thai Police stole from him in April, 2007, would he have any hope of recovery?

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=116068

When pigs fly, right?

Judge Dredd

[Arkady]

It gives me pause when I realize that kidnapping and extortion, committed by Thai Police gangs, seems to be a common occurrence here in Thailand.

As PadThaiGuy points out, there have been stories previously reported here on Thai Visa of foreigners kidnapped and robbed and extorted by Thai police:

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=117889

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=116068

Of course, there may be more to this particular story than meets the eye. In yesterday’s English print edition of the Bangkok Post, there was mention of the fact that the business woman who was abducted by the police, Piengjit Peungon, recently received 20,000,000 (20 Million) Thai Baht in settlement from the divorce from her ex Thai husband. Now, if this is true, you have to speculate: (1.)Did the police know of the settlement, and simply smell opportunity; or, (2.)Did the ex-hubby hire the police to recover a portion of his court-ordered alimony payment?

In the fall and winter of 2006-2007, didn’t we all hear stories that the new ruling Thai military Junta was going to clean up the Thai Police? Sounds like it is still business as usual.

Judge Dredd

The gang kidnapped Piengjit's two small children. If these were also her ex-hubby's children, and he hired the gang to get some of the divorce settlement back, then the plan backfired badly on him. I don't think any one would want to mess with these thugs. The chances of them actually sharing the proceeds with their "hirer" would be slim and the ex-husband is presumably well off and could easily have become a target in his own right. I think it more likely that the gang really did hear about the divorce settlement or found out in some other way she had money. They were in constant need of leads like insurance salesmen and it seems that they forced people to provide them with names of potential targets and set them up. In Piengjit's case, it seems that they got on to one of her staff or former staff. Perhaps they bit off more than they could chew by going after a bigger fish. Most of their victims were small fry who couldn't give them a huge amount of money. Piengjit and her family are probably worth a lot more than Baht 20 million and had the wherewithall and connections to make a complaint to the police at a senior level and be listened to. Another factor possibly contributing to their downfall is that they also allegedly framed two policemen, who claimed to be conducting a sting operation, for drugs as well although it is not at all clear between the two groups of cops who were real drug dealers and who was the sting. Possibly both were dealing in drugs and extortion and it was a turf battle. Anyway they would probably never have been arrested, if they hadn't got greedy in going for bigger targets or messed with other cops.

It looks quite clear that a share of the proceeds was being channelled upwards to the next layer or layers up, along the classic model of Thai police institutional corruption. This was a Chumphon BPP unit commanded by a fairly low ranking officer but it was allowed to operate freely in several provinces up and down the South and in Bangkok. They are all local Chumphon boys and one of the Bangkok victims said they were almost incomprehensible due to their thick Southern accents. Hardly a natural first choice for under cover work in Bangkok! All other police who came into contact with them outside Chumphon must have realised immediately there was something fishy about this unit, particularly in Bangkok, but perhaps kept mumm because they realised they must have high level protection to be operating like that and be AWOL from their posts in Chumphon.

It's a horrendus case because of its involvement of children and the electric shock torture of a pregnant woman. Let's hope they will be dealt with severely and will be a lesson to other criminals in brown. LOL. Unfortunately the practice of abduction followed by interrogation and torture in a safe house is a common Thai police technique. It achieves much better results than taking suspects or framees to the "rong pak", meekly advising them of their right to remain silent and turning on the camcorder!

BTW the most prominent hi-so person who was seen wearing what looked exactly like some of the Saudi jewels was Khunying Pankrua Yongchaiyudh, known to the press as "the walking jewelry box" and wife of Gen. Chavalit Yongchaiyudh, who was prime minister at the time or soon afterwards. She was not the only one. They claimed that the theft had started a craze of making copies of the stolen items. The Saudis complained that of the items that were returned to them by the Thai government many of them turned out to be fake.

Edited January 31, 2008 by Arkady

[Arkady]

Yeah, that was a huge case in the Kingdom regarding a high profile foreigner - Saudi royalty. The case dragged on for so long that I am a bit foggy on the upshot, but a high-ranking police officer was finally arrested in 2005 or 2006. I don't think the murders of the three Saudi diplomats were ever "solved".

*spelling

You are right, Kat, the murder of the three Saudi diplomats in the late 80s has never been solved. The murders were believed to have been ordered by well connected Thai labor brokers who were angry that the Saudis were trying to clean up the system for awarding labor contracts. The brokers had been getting the contracts by paying bribes. Then they supplied labor below the employers' specifications and squeezed the workers for massive amounts of tea money.

A Thai man servant working in the palace of a minor member of the Saudi royal family stole a huge amount of valuable jewelry and managed to escape back to Thailand with it. He was eventually tracked down to his home town in Pitsanaloke or somewhere around there and spent some time under interrogation by police who wanted to know the whereabouts of the jewelry. Some of it had passed through the hands of a Thai jeweler called Santi who I think was involved both in fencing the items and making copies of them with fake stones. There were also some Singaporean jewelers involved. Thai police abducted Santi's wife and small son and kept them in a safe house for weeks trying to use them to get to Santi, who had left the country, and the jewels. Eventually they had no further use for them and and left them beaten and drugged in the bend of a road upcountry and waited for a truck to come along and run them over. Many of their injuries turned out not to have been related to the traffic "accident" but were inflicted either before or afterwards. Pol Lt Gen Chalor Kerthes was after many years convicted first of embezzlement and sentenced to 20 years and later sentenced to death for murder (later commuted to life due to his "exemplary" police record). He had an American wife who for a while gave interviews saying that he was a wonderful, caring, loving husband who couldn't possibly have done anything like that.

I am not sure if the Saudis have ever accepted Thai labor again since they banned them due to the two cases. Anyway the economic loss to the Thai economy is significant.

[Jai Dee]

Extortion, kidnappings 'yielded Bt10m'

Eight people to be freed from jail as 'victims' lodge more reports

Victims of the rogue "Border Patrol gang" can lodge complaints with local police wherever they live, and don't have to see Bang Phlat police, where 13 ring members were first arrested last week, Royal Thai Police spokesman Pongsapat Pongcharoen said yesterday.

He estimated the gang, led by Border Police Captain Nat Chonnitiwanich, had made at least Bt10 million out through extortions and kidnappings, from more than 20 known victims. Police have seized several vehicles they stole from the victims.

Corrections Department spokesman Wanchai Rujjana-wong said there were now eight inmates in different prisons set to be released, after new evidence showed they were falsely convicted as a result of Nat's illegal arrests.

Prisons are checking how many inmates are linked to the rogue gang.

Apart from Nat, other officers arrested include Sgt-Major Chawalit Sumon and Sgt-Major Manop Sukkhongmit; Lance-Corporals Arkom Sudjai, Akradej Kotchakrit, Chatree Pankunrung and Rungroj Kretju and Corporal Neramit Jatumit. Two civilians have also been detained.

Pol Sr Sgt Major Prasarn Sornthawee was yesterday identified as a ring member after certain victims were shown a personnel record.

Pol Lt Colonel Surakit Khlai-udom, a deputy chief of the Border Police, 41, to whom Nat was assigned, is the most senior suspect known up to date.

A couple and a lawyer yesterday filed a complaint on behalf of Rawiwan Bunlert and Somjai Lomjan, who were jailed in a Ratchaburi prison following an alleged bogus arrest by Nat's team in August last year. Sukij Phoonsrikasem, the lawyer, revealed details of the arrest, naming Pol Captain Chaiyarat Jankate as a possible suspect.

Sukij alleged that Chaiyarat led the raid and planted 1,198 amphetamine tablets on the two women. While taking them away to a safe house in a van, Chaiyarat was kicked out of the vehicle by Rawiwan after he allegedly tried to molest her - and is still in coma today.

Nat's team later stated in the arrest record that Chaiyarat was hit accidentally by a vehicle while performing his duty. Nat's team later sent the two women to Ban Pong police after they could not pay the Bt1.3 million the gang had demanded. Rawiwan was also convicted for obstructing justice, and for kicking Chaiyarat out of the vehicle, the lawyer said.

There is no official information as to how many victims have so far fallen prey to Nat's gang, as more and more people filed complaints with police, claiming they are victims.

But Surat Thani police showed Nat's arrest record in that province alone was 39 between August and December last year. It is not known if the arrests were done lawfully.

Supachoke Janphaet, 21, filed a complaint with Surat Thani police saying he was framed by the gang late last year when he was a monk. After telling him to leave the monkhood during a Buddhist ritual, he said Nat initially told him to work as a buyer in future police stings. He claims he was forced to sign a confession that he possessed 5 amphetamine tablets, after he refused to comply.

Source: The Nation - 01 February 2008

[Pepe']

It will only get worse...

[Tony Clifton]

My wife mentioned something along the lines of many high school dropouts and lowest achievers often ending up in the police force, army and also as teachers. :link:

[Jai Dee]

Police let victims of rogue border patrol gang point out sites of crime

After Police officers and authorities of the Thonburi Criminal Attorney Office as well as social workers finished speaking with the sons of a widowed millionaire who were kidnapped along with their mother and extorted by a gang of rogue border patrol officers, authorities allowed the two boys to point out the site of the crime.

The young boys are children of Ms. Piangjit Pueng-oan (เพียงจิต พึ่งอ้น) who was kidnapped and held against her will by the gang before being made to withdraw over 8 million baht from several different ATM machines. The children pointed out a residential home in Petchkasem soi 42 as well as a room in soi Aree Samphan.

Police also let the boy’s view pictures and identify members of the group. The children and their mother were the first case filed against the gang which has accumulated as many as 20 cases against it.

Source: Thai National News Bureau Public Relations Department - 04 February 2008