Top police officers removed from Phuket

PHUKET TOWN: Pol Col Chalit Tintanee, the superintendent of Phuket Town Police Station, and Pol Lt Col Wutthichai Kamput, deputy superintendent (Crime Suppression Division) of Thalang Police Station, have been transferred to Surat Thani. A well placed source within the police department told the Gazette that both Col Chalit and Lt Col Wutthichai received a phone call this morning ordering their immediate transfers. Col Chalit left Phuket late this afternoon. The order comes two days after 60 officers of the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) of the Royal Thai Police in Bangkok conducted the largest-ever gambling raids in Phuket. In two separate, simultaneous operations at 5:30 pm on Saturday, police netted 91 punters. Sixty-three of them were arrested in the major raid on the second floor of Vanich Plaza on Luang Por Road in Phuket Town. During that raid, police seized 23,110 baht and a kung pla, a dice and dish game used for gambling. The second raid, at Baan Manik in Tambon Sri Soonthorn, Thalang, netted 28 gamblers and 21,910 baht. A kung pla set was also found there. Led by CSD Commissioner Pol Maj Gen Ausawin Kwanmuang, the officers organized the raids after being tipped off by an anonymous letter that disclosed the exact locations where the gambling was taking place.