Drug suspects killed in sting operations

A suspect was also killed in a similar sting operation in Bangkok yesterday.

After hearing of a gunfight at around 5am, Lamae police rushed to the site to find a Mitsubishi sedan on Lamae-Khao Chamod Road with dozens of spent bullets and Pol Sr Sgt-Major Thammanoon Nokkhao slumped with a wound on his left shoulder. After following a trail of blood into a rubber plantation about 300 metres away, police found the body of suspect Tinnakorn Boonmak, 25, being held by his mother. 

Police also found on Tinnakorn’s body the Bt50,000 officers used to buy the drugs and the suspect’s pistol nearby. A manhunt has been launched for the four other suspects who fled the scene. 

Pol Major Apichart Jiapanich, who led the sting operation, said the team aimed to crack a gang of drug dealers led by a native of Surat Thani’s Than Chana district identified as “First Thathai”. 

The gang had changed the venue for the exchange twice before agreeing to meet on the Lamae-Khao Chamod Road. However, when the police tried to arrest the suspects, they opened fire. 

Meanwhile, Narcotics Suppression Police officers also exchanged gunfire with drug suspects at the Thewakam intersection in Bangkok’s Nang Lerng area yesterday afternoon. As of press time, one suspect had been reported killed and one wounded. A stray bullet also hit a female student nearby.