An alleged drug dealer was killed in a gunfire exchange with police in Saraburi early on Wednesday after 30 of his alleged gang members were arrested in a police raid in Nakhon Ratchasima, police said.
Pol Maj Supachai Srisathienwong, an investigator at Muang district police station, said the gunfight occurred at about 3.30am in front of a PTT petrol station on the inbound Mittraphap Road in tambon Taling Chan.
The shootout followed a police raid on a resort on Khao Yai in Nakhon Ratchasima's Musi district where suspect members of a drug gang were reportedly attending a "seminar" and a thank-you party for their retailers.
The raid was led by Pol Maj Gen Chinapat Sarasin, deputy commissioner of the Narcotics Suppression Bureau (NSB).
While the police were charging in at the resort, about eight suspect members of the gang fled in three cars, heading for Mittraphap Road in Saraburi, while the police gave chase.
While on Mitrapap road in front of the PTT petrol station, the suspects' cars were blocked by a police van and the gunfight broke out between them and another police team.
One of the suspects, Surasak Boonthap, 24, was shot dead at the right front door of a Honda CRV. The car's windshield and bonnet were riddled with more than 30 bullet holes.
A police officer, Pol Lt Col Tiwapong Pluto, an NSB intelligence officer, was wounded in the exchange. He sustained bullet wounds to the right shoulder and left cheek.
A suspect, who has yet to be identified, was arrested, while another managed to flee in a car.
The other suspects fled in a Toyota Fortuner, which was later found abandoned on Kanchanaphisek road in Bang Bua Thong area of Nonthaburi.
At the resort in Nakhon Ratchasima's Musi district, the police rounded up 30 more suspects, two of them were wanted under police warrants.
Pol Lt Gen Rewat Klinkesorn, the NSB commissioner, who arrived at the scene of the gunfight in Saraburi shortly afterward, alleged Surasak, who died in the extrajudicial killing, was a member of a major drug network in Bangkok.