Confidential reports show five groups of officials are on the take of oil smugglers
One of the charges slapped against Pol Lt-Gen Pongpat Chayapan, former commissioner of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) and his gang of police officers is abetting oil smuggling gangs in the Deep South in exchange for bribes.
Some press reports have suggested that Pongpat’s gang might be linked with Sia Jor, an influential figure in the restive region who was suspected to be involved in oil smuggling activities but authorities concerned are unable to come up with hard evidences to implicate him.
Sia Jor is currently on the run, probably abroad, after he escaped from the courthouse allegedly with the help of some rogue officials.
But several knowledgeable people in the three southernmost provinces who knew something about the oil smuggling racket feel uncomfortable that the Pongpat’s gang might be blamed as the sole culprit for the oil smuggling activities and that the corruption problem pertaining to oil smuggling would be considered as resolved now that the gang had been smashed.
Confidential report from the security agency which was submitted to Bangkok two years ago and resent to the National Council for Peace and Order blamed officials of several agencies, not just the police, of being on the payroll of oil smuggling gangs.
According to one confidential report, Sia Jor was identified as the biggest oil smuggling racketeer in the Deep South and several people, including some local politicians were involved in the smuggling racket.
Besides Sia Jor, the other key players included Mr Nor, a local politician in Tak Bai district of Narathiwat; Mr Mor of Or For company in Pattani; Mr Mor, an owner of a company in Narathiwat; Mr Ma who was linked to illegal drugs trafficking; Kor Company and Tor Company which are in Kelantan state of Malaysia and one savings cooperative in the region.
The second set of confidential report gave the details about oil smuggling activities which are confined in the Gulf from Narathiwat up north to Petchaburi.
Normally a modified fishing trawler with a capacity to accommodate 30,000-200,000 litres of oil, depending on the size of the vessel, would be sent to pick up oil from the tanker in the high sea near the Malaysian waters. Then the trawlers, packed with oil instead of fish, would head for the rendezvous on the beaches with oil tanker trucks. The landing points of the trawlers vary from Songkhla, Prachuab Khiri Khan, Samut Sakhon to Rayong or Trat.
Some of these oil-laden trawlers served as floating gas stations selling fuel to passing fishing boats. These activities happened mostly in Pattani Bay.
The third set of report concerns officials who received bribes from oil smuggling gangs. The report said that officials of almost every level of several agencies have been on the take and the amount of total bribes paid was estimated at about 25 million baht a month.
Information extracted from a computer of an oil smuggling gang reportedly showed the names of some officials on the take, their bank account numbers and their phone numbers.
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Caption : The large barge for smuggling oil activities