Border police team blamed for drug dealer's escape

By The Nation

A team of border patrol police based in Chiang Mai is being investigated after a much-wanted drug dealer escaped from their custody on the weekend.

A joint police-military task force, in the meantime, is hunting Preeda Trakoolpreeda, who escaped after being detained by the 334th Border Patrol company based in Fang district on the weekend, said Pol Maj General Don Pinchaleo, a commander supervising the unit.

The suspect Preeda was thought to be on the run in Thailand, as police and soldiers began sealing the border with Burma not long after his escape, Don said.

The manhunt was ordered by the Department of Special Investigation, which led the raid at the request made by US Drug Enforcement Administration.

The investigation into the border patrol squad was ordered by the Justice Ministry. The names and number of police "responsible" for the escape have not been revealed.

Local authorities were given 30 days to recapture Preeda, said to be ethnic red Muser, starting from yesterday.

Police raided a house over the weekend and seized 100 bars of heroin worth around Bt20 million along with four other suspects, who were local hilltribe people. Preeda fled while being escorted to the company compound by a team of border police.

-- The Nation 2010-10-05

Anyone know what the Thai Law is on shooting a fleeing felon? If they legally and by policy could have shot the fleeing felon, then it might be a payoff. If not, maybe he was just able to run faster. He certainly had more to gain by outrunning them than they had (to gain) by catching him. Motivation=performance, I think I could run a dam_n bit faster if I was looking at checking into a Thai prison.

Anyone know what the Thai Law is on shooting a fleeing felon? If they legally and by policy could have shot the fleeing felon, then it might be a payoff. If not, maybe he was just able to run faster. He certainly had more to gain by outrunning them than they had (to gain) by catching him. Motivation=performance, I think I could run a dam_n bit faster if I was looking at checking into a Thai prison.

The law on shooting fleeing felons is not really relevant.

During Thaksin's 'war on drugs' quite a few 'suspects' were shot and killed. No one faced a judge for that.

If this guy got away from armed guards, it's probably because they wanted him to.

This is undoubtably the police letting him go. Either because they were paid or because they worked for him in the first place. Abhisit my man, I hope you're reading this - sack the lot of them, the disgraceful police force in this country are beyond repair.

How much would he have paid those police officers?