Senior police officers moved after Army leads raids on gambling dens
Play
TWO SENIOR metropolitan police commanders have been transferred to inactive posts after military officers earlier raided two Bangkok gambling dens in their jurisdiction.
Royal Thai Police chief Pol-General Somyot Poompanmuang said a clarification over frequent raids from Metropolitan Police Bureau chief Pol Lieutenant Srivara Ransibrahmanakul would be needed before he would decide if Sriwara would be held responsible for alleged inaction in the police’s anti-vice efforts.
The two officers transferred were the heads of Metropolitan Police Division 2 and 4, where the gambling dens were – in Bang Khen and Khok Khram police stations’ jurisdiction, respectively.
RTP spokesman Pol Lt-General Prawut Thawornsiri said that Pol Maj-Generals Korkiat Wongsumeth and Piyaphan Pingmuang currently serve at an RTP unit for an indefinite timeframe.
He said officers from the Central Investigation Bureau would now be assigned to help the MPB with anti-vice operations, but this new CIB role was not an intervention into MPB affairs or duties.
Speaking later, Somyot said the Army units were taking active roles in anti-vice operations because they were authorised to initiate raids under martial law. He said the Army raids were not considered interference in police duties and many raids were joint operations with police taking part.
A team of 50 soldiers and 10 local police raided a network of notorious gambling dens in Bangkok’s Tao Poon area yesterday afternoon, and seized a large number of handguns, betting equipment and narcotics.
Somyot said after that dens were now operating in a smaller way following suppression by the military in a social reform move. This made it more difficult for the police to keep tracks of the dens’ operations and suppress them.
“This is not an excuse for the MPB –therefore the CIB has been assigned to assist, from now on,” he said.
The raids were initially resisted by local residents, who allegedly act as lookouts, as has been reported regularly in news reports over the years. They accused the officials of damaging private property and causing a disturbance after officials hammered down many walls and cut off padlocks, and found the contraband items.
The items found were marijuana, spent “ice” flakes, eight pistols and ammunition, one gambling machine and a list of people banned from entering the dens.
The raids were conducted by troops from the Second Cavalry Division along with city administration police and 10 police from Tao Poon station.
News reports cited an earlier statement by Somyot about the Tao Poon gambling network having not been used recently. He said MPB recently reported to him that dens in the network were full of spider webs and covered with dust – a finding reported by a team of soldiers and police who raided them on an unspecified date.
