Police will seek arrest warrants for 16 crew members believed to be on board three seized oil-smuggling boats that disappeared from a marine police pier in Sattahip on Tuesday night.
Police believe the boats, still carrying contraband oil, are now in Cambodian waters.
Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat Pankaew, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) said on Friday that marine police have been tasked to find the boats.
Five boats, including the missing three, suspected of carrying contraband oil were seized by officers from the Marine Enforcement Command Centre and the CIB on March 19.
There were a total of 28 crew members on board the vessels, with 16 aboard the missing boats, said Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat.
The three missing boats are still carrying 330,000 litres of oil, while the other two boats that are still at the pier were found to have been empty.
Economic crime suppression police officers will interrogate those crew members who stayed behind on Monday, he said.
Investigators now believe the three boats left the pier in Sattahip on Tuesday at 8pm. They were sighted near Koh Kood in Trat province on Wednesday at 8am, and are believed to have continued into Cambodian waters nearby.
Their exact location is, however, still unknown.
Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat said authorities are working with their Cambodian counterparts to locate the boats. Satellites and patrol aircraft have also been deployed in the search.
An arrest warrant for the 16 crew members is expected to be issued by the court by Tuesday, he said.
The three boats are understood to belong to a network run by “Joe Pattani”, a major oil smuggler in the South.
Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat admitted that the incident was caused by police officers’ failure to keep an eye on the seized craft.
He said further investigations will be carried out to find out if any officers let the boats escape because of negligence or because they had been bribed.
Four marine police officers have been transferred to inactive posts pending the outcome of the investigations.
If police find they are suspected of any irregularities, they will be charged under Section 147 of the Criminal Code for misappropriation of official property and Section 157 for conducting their duties wrongfully.
Confiscated vessels are anchored at the marine police pier in Sattahip district of Chon Buri. (Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham)