Police gun theft case closed as 23 civilians, 8 police officers charged
The embarrassing case of a police sergeant stealing up to 160 guns from his station in Nonthaburi province was closed by deputy National Police chief Pol General Surachate Hakparn on Wednesday with 23 civilians and eight police officers facing justice.
Surachate held a press conference at the Inquiry Official Association of Thailand at the Royal Thai Police Club to sum up the Pak Kret Police Station gun theft case in Nonthaburi.
The theft was believed to have take place gradually from 2017 until last year and during that period convicted Pol Senior Sgt-Major Chaovalit Pumkhajorn stole 160 pistols and rifles from the police station to sell to the civilian suspects.
Surachate said police have so far retrieved only 64 guns and are still trying to locate 96 others. About 20 stolen M16 assault rifles were believed to have been sold to an ethnic fighting group in a neighbouring country, he revealed.
The case made headlines after Chaovalit was arrested on October 20 last year. He was later charged with committing theft in a government office and malfeasance.
Surachate said Chaovalit has been convicted and sentenced to 256 years and 168 months in jail but he will only serve the maximum jail term of 50 years in accordance with the Criminal Cases Procedural Code.
Chaovalit’s arrest led to an extensive investigation that prompted police investigators to seek court warrants for the arrest of 23 men and women for allegedly buying the stolen guns, Surachate added.
He said 19 suspects had been arrested and four others are serving jail terms in other cases. Prison officials have been informed to hand them over to police once they are released.
Surachate added that the case has over 2,200 pages of investigative reports and police will pass the case on for arraigning the 23 civilian suspects in court soon.
Surachate added that eight ex-senior officers of Pak Kret Police Station would be charged with dereliction of duty for failing to prevent the massive thefts.
The investigators passed on the case to the National Anti-Corruption Commission on March 30 to conduct a probe into the conduct of the eight senior police officers, Surachate said. They were identified only by their positions as:
- Pak Kret Police Station chief from 2017 to 2019
- Pak Kret Police Station chief from 2019 to 2022
- Pak Kret Police Station deputy chief from 2017 to 2019
- Pak Kret Police Station deputy chief from 2019 to 2021
- Pak Kret Police Station deputy chief from 2021 to 2022
- Deputy operative inspector of Pak Kret station from 2014 to 2020
- Operative inspector of Pak Kret Police Station from 2020 to 2021
- Operative inspector of Pak Kret Police Station from 2021 to 2022
