Thai police arrest 4 men for making homemade guns and selling them online

In a sting operation, Royal Thai Police officers posed as customers to crack an illegal gun network in Thailand. Police arrested four men for illegally making homemade guns and selling them online.

Initially, police seized guns and other weapons from a gang of vocational college students who were arrested for fighting. When police found out the youngsters purchased the weapons online, they handed the case over to the cyber police to investigate.

The officers posed as students and ordered homemade guns from every seller on the online network. Police managed to track down the address of each seller leading to the arrests of four men…

• Police arrested 45 year old Phichate Si-iam at his house in the Lat Krabang district of Bangkok
• Police arrested 31 year old Piyathat Roongpairot at his house in the Pak Kret district of Nonthaburi province
• Police arrested 18 year old Somphop Sengsoongnoen at his house in Buriram province
• Police arrested 22 year old Pakkapon Bamroongkhet at his house in Pra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya province

First, police raided Pichate’s house to find various tools to make pen guns. Pichate confessed that he bought equipment from a man named Piyathat to produce the weapons.

Police raided Piyathat’s house to find several firearms and various other gun-making paraphernalia. Police seized gun-making tools, completed firearms, and more than 6,000 bullets.

Piyathat ratted out two more men who he said were involved in his lucrative business – Somphop and Pakkapon.

All four men were arrested for violating Sections 24 and 73 of the Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, Fireworks, and Imitations of Firearms Act (1947): selling firearms or ammunition without permission.

Selling firearms or ammunition without permission in Thailand is punishable by imprisonment between two and 20 years and a fine between 4,000 to 40,000 baht.

Police said they were tracking down customers who have already purchased guns via the online network so the illegal weapons can be seized. Most of the network’s customers were vocational college students, added police.

Director of the Office of Vocational Education Commission’s Safety Centre, Taweesak Kewthong, said that vocational college students were the victims of illegal gun dealers.

Students are lured into purchasing and possessing illicit firearms which exacerbates conflicts between various educational institutions, said Taweesak.

Taweesak hopes the police’s crackdown on illegal weapons will help to quell violent clashes between college students.