A fugitive janitor has been captured and will face charges of having stolen 20 guns from the Phaya Mengrai police station in Chiang Mai province in 2009.
Pol Maj Gen Tanitsak Teerasawat, deputy commander of Provincial Police Region 5, announced the arrest of Nudol Rachapat, 46, a former janitor, on Tuesday.
Mr Nudol is wanted on multiple charges of burglary, unauthorised possession of firearms and receiving stolen property.
Pol Maj Gen Tanitsak said that in June last year police confiscated a gun which was later identified as one of the 20 stolen from Phaya Mengrai Police Station in Chiang Mai province in 2009, of which Nudol was the prime suspect.
He was quickly apprehended and admitted of having duplicated the key to the storage room and stolen the guns, Pol Maj Tanisak said. He later jumped bail.
Police learned that he had fled to Bangkok, where he was finally arrested again on Monday Nov 5.
This time, Mr Nudol changed his statement, claiming that he did not commit the theft himself and was only given 10 of the firearms, not 20 as reported, and had sold them for 8,000 baht each. He said he would name his accomplice during his trial in court.
Police were expanding their investigation to determine if anyone else was involved, Pol Maj Gen Tanitsak said.