Five police officers have been transferred to inactive posts in connection with the disappearance of three boats with 330,000 litres of smuggled oil and 18 crewmen from a marine police pier in Chon Buri.
A search is continuing for the vessels, which police say were owned by “Joe Namman Thue”, also known as “Joe Pattani”, a major oil smuggler in the South. Police suspect they are heading for Cambodian waters but might not have got that far yet.
The Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) has set up a fact-finding committee to discover how three of the five vessels that had been confiscated in an oil smuggling case vanished from the pier in Sattahip district early Wednesday with a total of 18 crewmen aboard.
The transfers of the officers are intended to ensure an unbiased and thorough investigation, according to senior officers.
Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat Pankaew, the CIB deputy commissioner who travelled to Sattahip to head the investigation, said it was divided into three parts: the officers who were negligent, the missing boats and their crews, and the establishment of a command centre to determine the cause of the disappearance and retrieve the vessels.
Police are working with their counterparts in Cambodia to locate the boats, he added.
“It is likely that the three missing ships are still in the Gulf of Thailand and have not yet reached neighbouring countries,” he said on Thursday. “That’s because they have oil onboard, allowing them to travel at a speed of only 7 to 8 knots. Covering the distance of 240 nautical miles to the neighbouring country would take about 15 hours.”
Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, the CIB commissioner, on Thursday signed an order to transfer the five marine police officers to inactive posts at the CIB operations centre.
The officers are Pol Col Intarat Panya, superintendent of Marine Police Division 5; Pol Lt Col Ajin Wangwatthana, deputy superintendent of Division 5; Pol Lt Col Kobchai To-on, an inspector with Marine Police Sub-Division 3, Division 5; Pol Sgt Maj Thammarat Lekmontra, squad leader of Sub-Division 3, Division 5; and Pol Cpl Apichart Channu, squad leader of Marine Police Sub-Division 3, Division 5.
If they are found guilty, they will be charged under Section 147 of the Criminal Code for misappropriation of official property and Section 157 for wrongful exercise of their duties, said Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat.