Six police officers among 7 nabbed for alleged extortion

Six police officers working with the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) have been arrested for their alleged involvement in the extortion of money from a group of foreigners in Samut Prakan province.

Police at Thung Song Hong station said on Thursday that they have arrested seven out of 12 suspects in this case, comprising six police officers and a Thai man.

Three other suspects, all police officers, had earlier turned themselves in. The other two individuals, a Thai woman and Chinese man, are still on the run, Pol Major Chairat Thamsithao, chief inspector of the case, said.

He said a group of five Vanuatu-Chinese foreigners had earlier filed a police complaint that a group of men claiming to be police officers had raided their house in Bang Phli district, Samut Prakan province on the evening of October 16.

The victims said the intruders showed an official document purported to have been issued by the Thai authorities, which they could not verify as they could not read Thai. The group claimed that it was a search warrant issued by the provincial court after a suspect in a passport forgery case confessed that his accomplice, a Vanuatu national, lived in this house.

The intruders then confiscated mobile phones and a computer from the residents, before forcing the Vanuatu man, identified as Sai, to transfer 300-million-baht worth of digital currency to their wallet in exchange for not pressing charges.

After Sai told them that he did not have that much money, the group forced him, his wife, a Chinese friend, and a maid  into a vehicle and drove them to an CCIB office located in the Government Complex in Bangkok’s Lak Si district, said Chairat.

There, Sai was brought to an interrogation room, where he negotiated the amount down to 5 million baht. He then made two transfers to the suspects’ account, of 9,253 UDST and 140,000 UDST.

UDST is a digital currency currently worth 33.80 baht per unit.

After getting the money, the suspects released the four victims and returned their phones, but not Sai’s computer.

Sai said he was contacted by the suspects again on October 17, via telegram messenger, demanding 700,000 baht in exchange for the identity of the person who alerted the authorities to search his house. He agreed to transfer 20,895 UDST, but has not heard from them again.

Chairat said investigators believe the suspects operate as a gang, with a senior police officer in CCIB acting as the leader. The officer, a police lieutenant colonel, was among those who have been arrested.