Anti-smuggler task force stages simulation

AO CHALONG: While the record fleet was wrapping up racing in the Six Senses Phuket Raceweek at Chalong Bay on Sunday, the Phuket Marine Police, Thai Customs officers and the Royal Thai Navy Third Fleet staged a co-ordinated, simulated raid on a fishing boat with the crew pretending to be arms smugglers.

In the exercise, a response group combining all three organizations was tipped-off that a fishing boat with gun-runners on board was on its way from Victoria Point in Myanmar to port in Phuket.

The supposed arsenal was on its way to arm rebel insurgents in the Deep South.

After receiving the report, a Royal Thai Navy patrol boat moved in on the fishing boat and officers boarded it near Koh Aew, off the coast of Rawai.

The officers then searched the vessel and seized the fake arms cache.

The exercise took about four hours to complete.

Commander Narong Onpakdee, who heads the tripartite response group, hailed the exercise a success and said he believed that tactics used in the simulation would work in a genuine raid.

“This exercise aims to develop the skills of the officers involved and assures us of their capability at sea,” he said.