Six members of car-theft gang nabbed in Lop Buri
POLICE recently captured six members of the country’s third most-wanted gang which was involved in stealing cars to resell to buyers in the Northeast for Bt200,000 to Bt300,000 each.
After their arrest in Lop Buri province on Tuesday, the suspects – identified as Somporn Thongreun, 49; Wanchalerm Thongreun, 23; Thanit Banjobrat, 30; Pornchai Wongsa, 21; Kittiya Thongreun, 22; and Thawatchai Phromrungroj, 22 – were presented to the press yesterday at the Metropolitan Police Bureau.
Evidence collected so far includes five vehicles, three boxes of equipment allegedly used to steal cars, 14 yaba pills and a shot gun.
Pol Maj-General Sompong Chingduang, deputy Metropolitan Police chief, said the bust stemmed from a car-owner’s complaint last month that her pickup truck had been stolen from Udomsuk Housing Estate, leading to an investigation that identified Somporn’s gang as culprits.
Thawatchai’s alleged job was to scout for a target car for his gang to steal, police said.
Somporn’s daughter, Kittiya, would then shadow the car owner while Somporn had his son Wanchalerm and son-in-law Pornchai steal the vehicle before it was passed on to a Northeast buyer in exchange for Bt200,000 to Bt300,000, the deputy police chief said.
The gang initially confessed to participating in six heists in Bangkok’s Udomsuk and Lat Krabang, Pathum Thani’s Khu Khot and Nonthaburi’s Bang Yai areas, Sompong said.
Former car painter Somporn – who had been jailed twice for car theft in the 1990s – faces three arrest warrants and Wanchalerm faces two arrest warrants, while Thawatchai, Thanit, Pornchai and Kittiya face a warrant each. It is believed that the gang has up to 11 members.
A source said the court had also issued an arrest warrant for a man in the Northeast who allegedly bought the stolen cars to sell to buyers in a neighbouring country.
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