Nana Police officers on the run after abducting Italian tourists and demanding Bt2m ransom

[webfact]

Nana Police on the run after abducting tourists and demanding THB2 million ransom
By Coconuts Bangkok



BANGKOK: -- Two Italian tourists were allegedly captured and held for ransom by a group of corrupt Nana cops.

The victims said they were wandering around the Nana area on Monday when they stopped to use an ATM. While they were at the ATM, an Uzbeki man and 4 officers approached the men to “arrest” them for using “fake ATM cards.”

The tourists, who did not commit any crime, were held hostage and moved to the fifth floor of an empty building. After hours of negotiating the gang took the tourists to Sawasdee Hotel on Sukhumvit 57 and demanded THB2 million in cash.

The Italians talked their captors down to THB1 million, saying they would call their family in Italy to transfer the money. The gang did not realize the tourists were, in fact, calling for help. [read more...]

Full story: http://bangkok.coconuts.co/2013/08/23/nana-police-run-after-abducting-tourists-and-demanding-thb2-million-ransom-0

-- Coconuts Bangkok 2013-08-23

[EvilDrSomkid]

This sounds familiar.

My wife mentioned that there is a new kind of ATM scam in Thailand now. The scammers leave an ATM card with the PIN written on the back on the ground at the ATM. If someone picks it up and puts it into the machine, the cops swoop down and 'arrest' and extort this person.

[laurentbkk]

WOW , thats getting better ..... Corrupt cops ?? As they are all corrupt anyway , its always good to know in which part of town they are.

[saakura]

This is absolutely terrifying. I hope the guilty will be severely punished to set an example to the police force.

[NongKhaiKid]

This is absolutely terrifying. I hope the guilty will be severely punished to set an example to the police force.

You are right of course but the words cops and punishment rarely go together

[GirlDrinkDrunk]

no such thing as nana police though the article does mention lumpini later.

its rather funny really as the wording suggests that bad nana police committed the crime, while good lumpini police saved the day.

in fact nana police are from lumpini station.

interestingly, if they were apprehended at soi 57 sukhumvit, the responding police should have been from thonglor station.

Edited August 23, 2013 by GirlDrinkDrunk

[krisb]

Disgusting pigs.

[Soutpeel]

A new marketing strategy for TAT ?....who needs to go to Nigeria to be held to ransom, come to Thailand and have it done by Thailands finest...

[tingtongfarang]

no such thing as nana police though the article does mention lumpini later.

its rather funny really as the wording suggests that bad nana police committed the crime, while good lumpini police saved the day.

in fact nana police are from lumpini station.

interestingly, if they were apprehended at soi 57 sukhumvit, the responding police should have been from thonglor station.

By all accounts the bib at thonglor are even more corrupt, please dont call them police...in essence thailand does not have a police force in the true sense.

[Soutpeel]

The Italians talked their captors down to THB1 million, saying they would call their family in Italy to transfer the money. The gang did not realize the tourists were, in fact, calling for help.

seems to me the Italians were a lot smarter than the BiB...not exactly the sharpest tools in the shed it seems, giving someone a phone...

[ggold]

they were a little ahead of themselves, these BiB's should have waited till the high end tourists started to arrive, then they fould have tried for the big bahts, they could afford 4-6 million easy!

[Thai at Heart]

Oh yes. Just another little step down the slide to anarchy.

Coppers kidnapping tourists.

I await the " it happens everywhere". Bogota maybe. Kabul?

[ozzibitch]

After Interpol got involved 4 cops have been arrested from 2 stations Lumphini and Thonglor

[ozzibitch]

And not low ranking one is a police lieutenant

[Badbanker]

It seems the Uzbeki is also in the bag and another 2 cops in their sights so a total of 7 is nice!

[jaidam]

It should be obvious to all that we are officially in a state of anarchy. Any comment from Kamronwit yet about his boys being set up?

[chainarong]

One would hope that DSI holds a full public enquiry into this police scam, (Yeah yeah) however lets be frank, they all learn from their masters, if politicians can be paroled to attend parliament , what message dose this send out to the rest of the community ,the path towards a general disintegration of the moral fabric of Thailand has been slowly gaining momentum over the last decade

[edwardandtubs]

A lot of us have experienced the gangster-like behaviour of Thong Lo police so it's not surprising that it has spread to a neighbouring police district. I can see the problem of police gangsters shaking down foreigners spreading and nothing will be done about it.

[kimamey]

WOW , thats getting better ..... Corrupt cops ?? As they are all corrupt anyway , its always good to know in which part of town they are.

If all cops are corrupt and bearing in mind that there are police across the entire kingdom as far as I know then they are in all parts of town, country and kingdom.

I'll just point out that it's unlikely that all cops are corrupt although I will admit that the honest ones are probably very lonely and spend their time watching their back.

It's good that something is being done about this but it will be undermined if they are convicted end up still being in the police when this is all over.

Edited August 23, 2013 by kimamey

[tingtongfarang]

WOW , thats getting better ..... Corrupt cops ?? As they are all corrupt anyway , its always good to know in which part of town they are.

If all cops are corrupt and bearing in mind that there are police across the entire kingdom as far as I know then they are in all parts of town, country and kingdom.

I'll just point out that it's unlikely that all cops are corrupt although I will admit that the honest ones are probably very lonely and spend their time watching their back.

It's good that something is being done about this but it will be undermined if they are convicted end up still being in the police when this is all over.

inactive post maybe

Or drag the case out for years until forgotten.

Edited August 23, 2013 by tingtongfarang

[dudu]

This may be the straw that broke the camels back, when word gets out that the police are kidnapping tourists, the fun is over.

[Chang_paarp]

The smart cops let the Italians talk to others in Italian, but did not have anyone who spoke Italian to monitor what they said. Oh! That's right they had a falang to help them.

As said already not the sharpest tools in the shed.

[jaidam]

The whole police force needs disbanding immediately. Not fit for purpose. The country will function just as well/or badly without them although I will concede there may be a shortage in meth for a while until market forces take over.

Didn't Hong Kong do something similar to get rid of an organized crime syndicate masquerading as a national police force?

[theblether]

Thailand is needing an Elliot Ness.

Scrub that, it's actually needing a couple of hundred thousand Elliot Ness's.

In my opinion there's only one way to end this level of police corruption. First of all raise the level of pay to the point where the job is truly worth doing in the first place, and hope to attract graduates.

Two, bring a bigger dog to the fight. The biggest in the country are the army. Tell the army commanders that for every conviction they get, they will get the entire proceeds of crime recovered from that officer. If that's his house, his savings, his land, the whole lot then great.

Police officers will go white with shock when army soldiers kick their door in at 5.00am. Give them a 20 year sentence to think about it too. If the public thought the army would do something about it the phones would be red hot.

They should make me Prime Minister for a day, but I think I'd get done in before breakfast.

Oh well, scrub that idea.

[NongKhaiKid]

TAT - adverse publicity regarding the BIB targeting tourists will not affect tourism

[TackyToo]

This is absolutely terrifying. I hope the guilty will be severely punished to set an example to the police force.

You are right of course but the words cops and punishment rarely go together

There is one thing I still don’t understand. Every cop is swearing an oath to the King and Country to become a member of the “Royal Thai Police.” I suggest charging every corrupt and criminal cop for “lese majeste” (minimum 5 years imprisonment) because they’re breaking the oath. Hence, they would be due to be punished for every wrongdoing according to the law, instead of sending them to inactive posts?

[NCC1701A]

I wonder if the Italians were nicely dressed? Italian men wear expensive clothes and I am thinking the cops picked on these guys because they looked like they had money.

[FiestyFarang]

Amazing how they got away, telepathy perhaps - hey it can't be easy to have a translator for every language as you don't know whose going to use the ATM.

[Baerboxer]

After Interpol got involved 4 cops have been arrested from 2 stations Lumphini and Thonglor

Off to inactive posts for them then.

[tonneke breda]

Uzbeki together with the police.

It confirms again there is no such thing as Russian mafia in Thailand....

And Uzbeks, aren't their women working in Grace Hotel?????