‘Boss Paeng’ flown to Bangkok after court okays temporary detention

Police flew convicted crime boss “Paeng Na Node” to Bangkok on Wednesday morning after the Nakhon Si Thammarat Court approved his temporary detention pending further investigations related to his escape last year.

Chavalit Thongduang, 37, was extradited on a chartered flight from Jakarta to Nakhon Si Thammarat airport Tuesday evening amid tight security by police for fear his supporters from his home province of Phatthalung would attempt to free him.

Many of his supporters came to wait for him at the airport and the fugitive waved smilingly to them when he was escorted away from the airport.

Police detained him at the Muang Nakhon Si Thammarat police station and tried but failed to interrogate him throughout the night. Chavalit remained silent and said he would only speak in court.

At 8am Wednesday, Nakhon Si Thammarat police chief Pol Maj Gen Somchai Suetortrakul and Muang police station chief Pol Col Kittichai Krainara led police commandos to take Chavalit from the Muang police station to the Nakhon Si Thammarat Court.

The police motorcade drove about 3 kilometres to the court. The process to seek his temporary detention took about 20 minutes.

Police then handed over Chavalit to Corrections Department officials to take him to Bangkok.

Chavalit was taken to the Nakhon Si Thammarat airport again and was flown on one of the Falcon 2000 jets of the Royal Thai Police to the Don Mueang military airport. The jet took off at 9.30am.

Command police guarded his transport all the time.

Somchai later told police that interrogators stopped questioning Chavalit at 4am and let him rest before he was taken to the Nakhon Si Thammarat court.

Somchai said if investigators wanted to interrogate Chavalit more, they could meet with him in a prison in Bangkok. The Corrections Department has yet to announce where Chavalit will be detained to serve his jail terms for two convictions.

Chavalit managed to escape in the early hours of October 22, 2023, after faking an illness and being admitted to Nakhon Si Thammarat Hospital.

When he escaped, Chavalit was serving a 20-year-three-month term for trying to free a drug suspect from police custody. Separately, the Phatthalung Court sentenced him in absentia in December last year to life imprisonment for his role in the attempted murder of a court official in 2019.