9 prison escapees back behind bars, lotion the key to escape

The case of 9 prisoners who managed to escape a temporary detention centre has now been officially closed, with all inmates now back behind bars. The group had used a saw to hack through the bars of their room, then used their clothes to soften the barbwire atop the prison walls and climbed to freedom, albeit briefly.

The governor of the Nakhon Pathom Central Prison along with the commissioner of the Provincial Police Region 7 announced the official closing of the case, saying that the investigation into how the jailbreak was orchestrated is still ongoing.

The saw blade was determined to have been smuggled into the temporary prison facility, which is used to Covid-19 test and quarantine incoming prisoners to prevent outbreaks in Thailand’s overcrowded prison system, by being hidden inside a lotion bottle.

Further investigation revealed that a relative of one of the inmates brought the lotion bottle with the saw blade hidden inside to the prison and asked an official outside the facility to deliver the gift to the inmate behind bars. The official complied but has denied any knowledge that the gift was a trojan horse with that saw that enabled the 9 inmates to escape hidden inside. A person suspected of smuggling has been captured and held at a prison in Samut Songkhram for further interrogation.

After the daring escape of the group of 9 prisoners – 6 drug offenders, 2 charged with theft, and 1 charged with physical abuse – 2 young escapees were rounded up almost immediately, with police catching another that afternoon and local leaders spotting and subduing a fourth that same day.

Police managed to recapture all nine escaped inmates now, with the 38 year old man who is considered to be the ringleader of the escape plot now back behind bars. He was the one who ordered the saw blade to be delivered and when police caught up with him he was in a Honda car with 2 mobile phones, a wig, and 100 pills of speed.

SOURCE: MCOT