UDON THANI - Police and soldiers will comb through a forest in Ban Phue district as they widen their investigation into possible gangland killings involving police guns-for-hire.
The thorough search of a Ban Khambon Wiangchai forest in tambon Nong Waeng of Ban Phue district will start on Sunday, Pol Maj Gen Khajonsak Pansakhon, deputy commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 4, said on Friday.
"We have requested equipment such as metal detectors from the military and border patrol police to collect all the evidence we can, including bullet slugs and spent cartridges, at 16 locations. The search will involve soldiers and police walking through the forest in line abreast," he said.
The expanded investigation follows the discovery of 16 piles of human bones and burnt tyres in the forest in the past two days, amid allegations that some local police officers were hired to kill people in this northeastern province.
An initial inspection indicated that the dead bodies at some locations could date back a decade ago, Pol Maj Gen Khajonsak said.
Police at all local stations were ordered to contact relatives of people reported missing to gather and update information and DNA samples.
There were groups of suspects, including some officials, who were also believed involved in drug traffickng and illegal rosewood logging, he said.
Police were allegedly hired to kill people and conceal the bodies, burning them in pyres of burning tyres, in Ban Phue district in past years. Previous investigations had not progressed because witnesses had been too afraid to speak of the "tyre pyre graveyard".
Victims in the past seven years reportedly included the 48-year-old mistress of a police officer. His wife allegedly paid other police 60,000 baht to murder her. She disappeared from a police residence in Ban Phue in 2010.
Another victim was a 57-year-old woman loan shark whose burnt body was discovered in the forest in Ban Phue. She had gone missing in 2014.