Fresh crackdown on ‘dark influence’

DEPUTY Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan yesterday admitted some state officials were associated with influential criminal figures being targeted in government crackdowns.

Prawit said the authorities would try to complete a nationwide suppression of such figures within two months or within this government’s administration term. 

He announced this was the time for all to refrain from illegal actions and be law-abiding citizens.

Prawit denied the policy was aimed at political party canvassers and said the crackdown targeted 6,000 “dark influence” suspects whose behaviour fell within the framework of 16 criminal offences. Among them, he said, were state officials. 

Influential criminal figures were defined as: people having weapons and manpower in their possession to carry out illegal activities.

They were divided into the 16 groups of offenders: illegal money lenders; bid collusion; motorcycle taxis’ illegal fee collectors; entertainment and service business establishments violating laws; illegal goods (including gasoline) traders; gambling-den operators; prostitution; migrant worker traffickers; duping people with faulty promises of jobs abroad; tourist exploitation; guns-for-hire businesses; illegal debt collecting services; war weapons trade; encroachment on public land; bribe-taking at highways and public places; and drug trafficking. 

This was a wider net than the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO)’s order number 3/2558 (2015) that addressed five categories of offences. They were; encroachment of forest and natural resources; drug dealing by prison inmates; tax evasion and smuggling; black-market high-interest money lending; and exploitation of tourists.

The policy was kicked off last October following Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s ultimatum to eradicate influential criminal figures in six months.

A source at the NCPO said the six-month time frame was regarded the first phrase of the crackdown on underworld figures, which saw the authorities gathering information in November-December and verifying it in January-February, before Prawit announced the launch of action from March 4 onwards.

The first phrase would last until July, coinciding with the referendum on a new constitution tentatively set for July 31, the source said. The second phase would follow the referendum result announcement and would last until election day.

However, Army chief General Theerachai Nakwanich said the operations would continue until such figures were purged. 

Theerachai also said he was satisfied with Tuesday’s operation in Nakhon Pathom where eight locations were searched and six suspects were charged with having weapons or illicit drugs without permission.

The search was carried out by combined teams of the Peace and Order Maintaining Command, the Royal Thai Police, and civil service officials. It led to the seizure of 38 firearms, ammunition, Bt2 million in cash, gold bars, several luxury cars, six radio-communication devices, 19 “yaba” pills, an underground lottery and football betting tickets.

Meanwhile, police deputy spokesman Pol Colonel Songpol Wattanachai affirmed that the crackdown policy would be carried out to the same standard against influential criminal figures regardless of their standing or position. He said the operation did not intend to bully anyone. 

In related news, the Anti-Money Laundering Office transaction board has resolved to temporarily seize the assets – worth Bt4 billion – belonging to Panthong na Ranong and others. They were accused of bribing state officials to issue land rights documents for Phuket’s Freedom Beach land plots overlapping Nak Kerd Hills’ conserved forest. The seized assets were a 45-rai plot and other 19-rai plot, both located in Tambon Karon of Muang Phuket.