In a scene more reminiscent of the Keystone Cops, narcotics suppression police were left red-faced after drugs they seized from a trafficker in the southern province of Songkla were stolen back by a drug cartel. And, just for good measure, the drug cartel stole their police car, guns and phones as well.
The Deputy Chief of the Songkhla Provincial Administrative Special Operations Squad, Pairat Kaewmanee, and five officers from the Volunteer Defense Corps, reported at Rattaphum Police Station in Songkla province that they had been robbed by a drug trafficking gang at 9.30pm on Monday, October 17.
Pairat reported that he and the five officers posed as drug dealers and bought 20,000 methamphetamine tablets from a 35 year old drug dealer named Thanakorn in front of Baan Kuan Sator School at 7.45pm on Monday. They arrested Thanakorn at the scene and tried to set up another arrest with the help of the drug dealer.
Pairat urged Thanakorn to contact another dealer named Dam and make an appointment with him at the Sala Khiao Intersection.
The officers travelled to the location separately in two cars. Pairat and the four officers travelled in a sedan while another officer followed behind with Thanakorn in a pickup.
Pairat revealed that four cars suddenly surrounded his sedan after he arrived at the appointed location and about 20 men emerged from the vehicles armed with pistols and an M4 carbine.
The group claimed they were officers from Rattaphum Police Station. They made Pairat and the four officers strip to the waist. They then took their phones, and weapons, and made off with their sedan which had the seized drugs in the boot.
The officer travelling in the pickup car with Thanakorn arrived at the scene too late.
The red-faced officers are reportedly putting a plan together on how to arrest the gang and take back the drugs.