Police arrest oil heist suspect

BANGKOK: -- Police in Bangkok today arrested one of the four bogus policemen suspected of having hijacked an oil tanker with 16,000 litres of petrol on Thursday, after having discovered the tanker left abandoned and emptied of petrol.

Metropolitan Police Commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Pansiri Praphawat said that the tanker, hijacked by four men claiming to be Crime Suppression Division officers, had been found lying by a roadside in Nonthaburi Province on the outskirts of Bangkok, but that the 16,000 litres of diesel and petrol had already been siphoned off.

Witnesses said that the tanker had been parked at around 02.00hrs last night, and that shortly afterwards a pick-up truck had been seen speeding off from the scene.

Stressing that the four ‘policeman’ involved in the incident had not been genuine officers, the Metropolitan Police commissioner said: “The person for whom a warrant has been issued is not a policeman. He’s a criminal with a history of oil smuggling. He also once served time for a similar incident involving rice, and was released from prison just last year”.

Pol. Lt. Gen. Pansiri said that the police believed that the petrol had been stolen with the intent to sell, and that officers were now searching for the other three men involved in the hijacking.

The man arrested this afternoon was named as Mr. Sontaya Thiengtrong, well known to the police for his involvement in thefts in Bangkok and the Central Region.

Pol. Maj. Gen. Khamrab Panyakaeow, commander of Nonthaburi provincial police, said that the police were now aware of the identities of those involved in the case.

All had carried out similar heists, always acting as bogus policemen, several times in the past, he said.

--TNA 2004-10-24

I am surprised he did not slip through their hands.