Eleven crew members who were missing from oil-smuggling boats that had been seized by the authorities surrendered to police on Monday.
This comes as arrest warrants for another 15 crew members were issued following the earlier disappearance of three of five seized suspected oil-smuggling boats from a marine police compound.
The boats, which disappeared from the marine police pier in Chon Buri's Sattahip district, have now been discovered.
The 11 crew members, along with their lawyers, showed up at the Economic Crime Suppression Division's (ECD) office for interrogation. They were among a total of 28 crew members who had manned the three missing boats.
Pol Col Chatchawal Chuchaicharoen said the interrogation was aimed at finding out the exact number of crew members left in the country and those who had managed to leave.
It was initially found that 15 crew members escaped with in three vessels while the other 13 remained in Thailand.
However, two of the 13 crew, including a Thai and a foreigner, were missing and their guarantors were searching for them.
Pol Col Chatchawal said the 15 crew members who fled the country on the three boats will lose their right to bail and will be arrested for their escape while on bail.
He said their guarantors are responsible for bringing them to justice, while the ECD will charge them with stealing the boats.
Pol Col Chatchawal said officers are investigating who was behind the theft..
The 28 crew members were initially arrested on March 19 for a tax crime, and they were later released on two-million-baht bail, which allowed them to escape.
The three vessels that went missing contained 330,000 litres of contraband diesel at the time they disappeared from the pier in Satthip.
They were spotted and surrounded by marine police near Malaysian waters on Sunday. A large amount of oil contained in the vessels was found to be missing.
The three boats were reported to have arrived at the Port of Songkhla on Monday.