A raid on an alleged fake-passport operation in Bangkok on Friday resulted in five arrests and an additional surprise when officers discovered the dismembered body of a man in a freezer.
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Investigating Officer Disadee Kwansri told Anadolu Agency on Saturday, “when we inspected the compound we found hundreds of forged passports and the dismembered remains of a foreigner locked inside a freezer”.
“They are charged on five counts including attempting to kill an official on duty, resisting arrest, illegal possession of firearms and ammunition, forging official documents and concealing a corpse”, said Chanin Vachirapraneekul, commander of the police station in Bangkok’s Phra Khanong district where the men were taken.
Ten police had arrived with a search warrant just after around 1pm and while they were carrying out the search Kanchanaphong was shot.
Sathien described the three arrested men as English-speaking foreigners but said police did not know their nationalities as they had been traveling on forged USA and British passports.
A body of a “foreign man with blond hair” was then found inside a large freezer on the ground floor.
The foreign suspects claimed to represent a research firm and declined to answer police questions, Pol Maj Gen Somprasong said. Kanjanapong Chedet, was in stable condition.
Thai police added that during the raid, one of the suspect’s fired at one officer, while turning from a safe he was opening.
She said that it was plugged in all the time but she had not seen the men get any food or drink to put in it.
With porous borders, visa-free travel for many countries and notoriously corrupt law enforcement, Thailand has always been a haven for foreign criminals and fugitives.
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Passports are known to be sold on to drug traffickers while others are suspected to have ended up in the hands of Islamist militants.
