Bust sees 6 arrested for drugs, 6 police arrested for bribes
Six police officers were arrested in Songkhla, accused of dereliction of duty and soliciting bribes from a drug dealer. The officers included the Rattaphum Deputy District Chief along with five drug enforcement officers. They turned themselves in after a warrant was issued for their arrest.
The charges come after a 35 year old drug dealer was arrested on Monday and evidence pointed at communication between him and the Phikhat Phairi drug squad. Thailand’s National Police Chief reported that the district chief and five members of the drug squad have been questioned by Songkhla Police already and confessed to soliciting bribes.
The drug bust was made at the beginning of this week when the dealer sold 20,000 meth pills on Monday night. Unfortunately for him, his customer was an undercover cop in the Rattaphum district.
The man was arrested and thoroughly interrogated with fruitful results. Information gleaned from questioning the drug dealer uncovered the supply chain and directly resulted in six more suspects being taken into custody. But they were not the most interesting suspects uncovered in the investigation.
The drug trafficker’s phone revealed messages on the LINE app between the drug gang and the deputy district chief. Furthermore, there were records that the chief attempted to solicit bribes from family members of the arrested drug dealer to secure his release.
The police ordered payment in cash or drugs. They said they would release the dealer for 1 million baht. Failing that, his family could secure his freedom in exchange for 10 kilogrammes of crystal meth or 200,000 meth pills.
According to the Bangkok Post, when the drug enforcement officers involved in the bribe scheme were confronted, they confessed to the crimes. An investigation is ongoing.
The officer said that corruption was not part of their normal daily duties. They asserted that this was the first time they ever attempted the solicitation of a bribe and that they previously had only behaved ethically. The Deputy National Police Chief is considering those claims with some scepticism.
