Six people have been arrested and a number of firearms and drugs seized after a commando task force raided 21 locations in the southern provinces of Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung early on Thursday in a major operation to curb rising criminal activities.
Armed with arrest warrants, a 300-strong team of police officers and commandos attached to the Crime Suppression Division mounted dawn raids on 15 locations in Phatthalung and six in Nakhon Si Thammarat.
The task force seized five firearms, 247 rounds of assorted ammunition, 296 methamphetamine pills and one gramme of crystal meth during a raid on a house owned by Suthep Chaichana, a kamnan (sub-district chief) in Phatthalung’s Tamot district.
Mr Suthep is among the six suspects arrested in the CSD’s first major operation since Pol Gen Chakthip Chaijinda took over as national police chief on the retirement of Pol Gen Somyot Poompunmuang.
The team searched his house in Khlong Yai sub-district and found the weapons and drugs were hidden around the property or buried.
In Nakhon Si Thammarat, the team confiscated a BMW Z3 whose owner could not present documents and held 45 vehicles for examination.
CSD chief Akkaradej Pimolsri said national police chief Chakthip Chaijinda instructed the Central Investigation Bureau, which supervises the CSD, to link up with local police in launching the crackdowns on influential figures and hired gunmen as serious crime had continued unabated in the two provinces, especially cases that involve firearms.
One of the high-profile cases was the killing of Phra Suchart Rakmai, a monk at Wat Khuan Phanang Tung in Phattalung’s Khuan Khanun district.
The 66-year-old monk was gunned down during his morning alms round on Sept 16. An unidentified person or persons set fire to his coffin a week later and the flames burned parts of his body. Police have not been able to determine a motive in the murder of Phra Suchart and the burning of his coffin.
Pol Mag Gen Akkaradej said reinforcements from the CSD would help their colleagues in Nakhon Si Thammarat and Phatthalung set up checkpoints for weapons screening and to stop the movement of illegal weapons as well as searching for additional suspects until the end of this month.
Local police will prosecute the arrested individuals and check if any of the seized guns had been used in past homicide cases in the two provinces. Test firing would be conducted and police would keep spent cartridges for future reference, Pol Mag Gen Akkaradej added.
The CDS chief pledged to take decisive action to arrest mafia types and hired gunmen in the southern provinces to create public confidence.