More charges levelled against border police gang

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.

The Nation