Undercover sting: Police arrest alleged gunmaker in Nakhon Sawan

It took police two days before they could arrest an alleged gunmaker in Nakhon Sawan and seize the two sawn-off shotguns he was about to mail to his buyers on Sunday. 

Pol Colonel Jakkrawut Klainil, commander of the Metropolitan Police Burea’s division of news analysis and special tools, held a press conference on Monday to announce the arrest of Napassakorn, 23, alias “Oat of Nong E-terng”, a resident of Nong E-terng village in Nakhon Sawan’s Phayuha Khiri district.

Jakkrawut said his division initially suspected that Napassakorn was just a courier until the suspect admitted that he had made the two shotguns himself. He also said that most villagers made shotguns to earn their living. 

The police colonel said his division had known about the Nong E-terng village for a while, following the recent arrest of a gun distributor in Suphan Buri. 

He said the police could not just show up at the village and raid homes to arrest the alleged gunmakers because there was an extensive guarding system set up to alert residents of the arrival of the law enforcers. 

Hence, Jakkrawut said, his division had sent out an undercover officer to lie in wait outside the village for two days before the arrest on Sunday. 

He added that the operation was only made possible by information provided by a suspect who goes by the alias “Som the 1,000 Colt Guns”, who was arrested in Suphan Buri recently. 

He said the undercover officer staking out the village spotted Nappassakorn drive to a private logistics firm at a petrol station outside the village and alerted Jakkrawut.

The arresting officers found two sawn-off shotguns hidden in two boxes of crackers.

Nappasakorn, meanwhile, said every household in his village had inherited knowledge from their ancestors to make guns.

Previously, he said, people had to show up in person to buy guns, but now thanks to good logistics, guns can be mailed to customers.