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Published on February 9, 2008

Deputy police chief Thanee Somboonsub said he had given the order to all relevant police commands to work out the cases in an integrated manner and share the information from their investigations.

He said the number of complaints lodged against the rogue policemen, mostly attached to Border Patrols 41 and 42 in the South and led by Pol Captain Nat Chonnithiwanit, had reached 60 as of press time yesterday.

Thanee said victims had accused three commissioned police officers, apart from Nat, of preying on them through extortion, blackmail and torture. More than 20 implicated police officers are non-commissioned officers, except for one lieutenant-colonel.

Although the news about Nat's organised crimes broke just two weeks ago, they date back three years according to victims' complaints; indeed a Surat Thani woman said her brother had been sentenced nearly a decade ago as a result of a wrongful arrest made by Nat's team.

Pheeraphorn Fungfueng said her brother Watcharin Srisuwan had been arrested by a team of border patrol policemen led by Pol Lt-Colonel Surakit Khlai-udom, the most senior suspect now in police custody, on August 3, 1998.

She said the policemen had beaten up Watcharin and forced him to sign a confession to having 1,342 amphetamine tablets in his possession when he could not give them Bt200,000. He was convicted not long after and is serving a 33-year prison term in Nakhon Si Thammarat.

The Nation