Mystery lingers on regarding the piracy case

It was indeed a big crime case of October although not as big as the murder of national marksman Chakkrit, aka X, Panichpatikham.  It was about the busting of a piracy gang which robbed a boat of 119 million baht cash in Singapore dollars and Malaysian ringgits in the sea between Songkhla and Pattani.  Seven crew members were killed or drowned.

          Four pirates were initially arrested and about 40 million baht in cash were recovered.  A manhunt has been launched for the rest of the gang.

          What was so amazing about this piracy case was that the case appeared to have closed abruptly after the arrest of the suspects.  There are a few unanswered questions that nobody has bothered to raise such as:  Where the money come from?  Why the money was transported by boat and not by other means which are more convenient?  Why the money was not electronically wired to the receiver’s account?

          The representative of the shipping company responsible for transport the cash money simply told reporters that the money belong to a foreign exchange firm in Hat Yai and the cash was to be delivered to a "VIP customer" on Losin island off Pattani coast.

          However, one of the suspected pirates who was a boat skipper reportedly to Crime Suppression Division police that the cash were found in old beer boxes which scattered in the boat’s control room instead of being put in a safe as it should have been the case.

          The suspect also said that had he not been told before by a informer on the boat he would not have suspected that the money was contained in old beer boxes.

          Then the claim that the money was meant to be delivered to a "VIP customer" on Losin island.  The truth is that it is totally impossible that the money was to be delivered on Losin island which, in fact, are rock outcrops about 100 square metre in size, totally unhabitated and accessible only by small boats.  The only structure on the outcrops is the light house.

          So, the story given by the shipping firm’s representative that the money was to be delivered to a customer on the Losin island was plain rubbish.

          Dealing in currencies or transporting cash from one place to another is not illegal, but transporting the money by boat instead of other means of transport which are more convenient and safer is rather odd and suspicious.

          There was one interesting piece of information which may give a clue about this shipment of cash which was robbed in the high sea.  In October last year, officials from the Internal Security Operations Command, Department of Special Investigation and local authorities raided a godown in Pattani’s Muang district and seized several trucks which were modified to smuggle oil.  The godown belong to an influential businessman wellknown in the oil smuggling circle.  Coincidentally, the name of the godown is almost similar to the name of the shipping company whose boat was robbed.

          In the godown’s raid, the officials found a burned account book which was thought to contain all the names of people receiving bribes from the influential businessman.  A computer laptop was also seized during the raid but what was inside the computer has never been made public a year afterward.

          When asked about the burned account book, Lt-Gen Paradorn Pattanathabutr, National Security Council chief, laughingly said the book might implicate people in the whole southern region.

          It was unknown whether the godown’s case and the piracy case were connected or.  But what was already known was that the piracy case seemed to have closed just that.

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Caption : Four pirates were initially arrested and about 40 million baht in cash were recovered.