Three suspects in a recent post office robbery were arrested, more than a kilogramme of crystal methamphetamine seized, and a large cache of weapons uncovered in a raid on a suspected drug den in Phatthalung.
Police and narcotics-suppression officers hit the house in tambon Don Pradu of Pak Phayun district on Thursday morning and the arrests of house owner Phanom Pahumantor, 32, Pathompong Chankhong, 38, and Sukanya Noomark, 22, were announced late last night.
In a cattle pen filled with hay, officers found a weapons cache that included one M16 rifle with 1,800 rounds of ammunition, 1,900 rounds of M60 ammunition, four M16 rifle magazines, two M18 smoke grenades and 70 rounds of M79 ammunition, media reports said.
Some 1.2 kg of crystal methamphetamine was also found hidden in the house, Thai media reported on Friday.
Police also found burned computer hard drives behind the house. The disks were believed to contain images from the Khuan Nian post office's closed-circuit television cameras. They were stolen during the March 3 robbery of the premises.
Authorities said footage from the CCTVs showed the three suspects there. The trio held an employee at gunpoint to force him to remove the hard disks, as they feared police would track them down, police said.
During interrogation, the suspects claimed all seized items belonged to Pakorn Maneerat, 32, a former police officer in the deep South. Mr Pakorn, who remained at large, had been expelled from the police force for his involvement in illicit drugs and weapons dealing.
The police investigation is continuing, and they are hunting down Mr Pakorn.
Pol Maj Gen Damras Wiriyakul, Phatthalung's police chief, said Friday that investigators believe the weapons and drugs may be linked to the southern unrest.
Mr Pakorn, a former police officer in strife-torn Narathiwat province, is suspected to have been involved in several shootings against his rivals over illicit businesses in Phatthalung, Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat. The man allegedly is connected to drug networks in Phatthalung and Songkhla provinces, police said.
Pol Maj Gen Damras said a police team had been dispatched to the deep South to coordinate with local officers to locate the suspect, who was reportedly in hiding with a drug gang in the region.