Thread: Probe after drug suspect dies in cop extortion bid

They just sort of slipped this into the Bangkok Post update. Might explain why it was leaked.

On Tuesday lawyer Sittha Biabangkerd posted the clip on his Facebook page in which a police officer putting a plastic bag over the head of a man (Chiraphong), who was wearing a yellow T-shirt.

Other police were present. The clip showed Chiraphong resisting.

The lawyer said he obtained the clip from a junior police officer who sought his help in forwarding the clip to the national police chief.
The junior officer asked the lawyer to follow up on the case before he and his fellow officers were killed, Mr Sittha said.

Police hunt for ex-cop on run

Originally Posted by aging one

His car collection

The gf was telling me that Thai news suggests this wasn't a traditional collection, that it was a side business he had importing dodgy cars, getting clean paperwork then selling them on.

Doubtless others were involved. I bet a few senior folk are ducking for cover.

Originally Posted by Shutree

The gf was telling me that Thai news suggests this wasn't a traditional collection, that it was a side business he had importing dodgy cars, getting clean paperwork then selling them on.

Doubtless others were involved. I bet a few senior folk are ducking for cover.

Ah, the old "this is a kit car" scam maybe.

The hospital saying he died of methamphetamine poisoning. Not suffocation from the plastic bags wrapped around his noggin.

They're yet to list it as the official verdict, but that is what their initial tests show.

Will no doubt be official when the new hospital ambulance is that yellow Lamborghini Aventador.


That will be the murder charges gone.

What's left after that. Attempted extortion instead of extortion as he dies before giving them the money? Is that caught on video or is it only the junior copper's word? He probably won't be standing up in court declaring it.


Perhaps time off for trying to help him through his meth poisoning by using plastic bags to stop him harming himself with his meth induced struggles?

Originally Posted by Edmond

that is what their initial tests show.

It isn't clear what if anything was actually tested, the Thai news says the hospital was told by the police what to record as the cause of death. The body was then cremated.

Originally Posted by Edmond

junior copper's word? He probably won't be standing up in court declaring it.

He must be a very worried young man. He is surrounded by people who are armed and dangerous and who know where he lives. I just hope it doesn't become another tragic suicide.

Originally Posted by Shutree

He must be a very worried young man. He is surrounded by people who are armed and dangerous and who know where he lives. I just hope it doesn't become another tragic suicide.

He was at greater risk of being silenced when no-one knew about this.

Now it's out in the open, it would take a very stupid person indeed to exacerbate their situation by killing him or having him killed. A great way to confirm that you are guilty of the original crime.

Not that I'm putting it past them, but I can see why he did it, and he's probably right.

Originally Posted by harrybarracuda

it would take a very stupid person indeed to exacerbate their situation by killing him or having him killed.

A single vehicle car crash with fatal head wounds can often be convenient.


An official hospital verdict of death by meth poisoning probably won't help him sleep peacefully.

Originally Posted by Shutree

The body was then cremated.

Also helps with the over all convenience of things.

Originally Posted by Edmond

A single vehicle car crash with fatal head wounds can often be convenient.
An official hospital verdict of death by meth poisoning probably won't help him sleep peacefully.

As is usual the point went sailing right over your head.

Originally Posted by Shutree

It isn't clear what if anything was actually tested, the Thai news says the hospital was told by the police what to record as the cause of death. The body was then cremated.



He must be a very worried young man. He is surrounded by people who are armed and dangerous and who know where he lives. I just hope it doesn't become another tragic suicide.

Don't think of this young copper as someone who had honest intentions.

My wife tells me that he tried to blackmail the senior copper for 20 million Bhat to not put the video clip in the public domain.

The first solicitor he went to, decided against publicizing the clip, as he had concerns for his own safety (possibly not powerful enough to fend off those who would inevitably come after him)

These coppers are truly worse than common crooks and criminals.

Originally Posted by Listerman

My wife tells me that he tried to blackmail the senior copper for 20 million Bhat

Did you ask her how she came across this piece of information?

Thai Sheila's love sitting around jamming somtam in there gobs and generally having a good ole bullshit and a giggle. No need to let the truth get in the way of a good yarn.

the whole story just goes to prove, as if any proof was necessary, that thais who occupy this strata of society, are truly devoid of intelligence and their only "asset" is their ability to lie, bully and cheat.

who, if their utterly useless chickenhead brains had even one functioning brain cell, would torture, asphyxiate and murder someone, then attempt resuscitation on them in full view of a high definition close circuit camera.

The fookers on a beach with Lord Lucan by now.

Originally Posted by Joe 90

The fookers on a beach with Lord Lucan by now.

No, he really didn't have anywhere to go. They have enough on their plate as it is.

The article's a fucking hoot though.

Fugitive Pol Col Thitisan Utthanaphon, aka Jo Ferrari, said he wanted to extract information about more drugs from a suspect.

The former chief of the Nakhon Sawan Muang police station surrendered himself to police in Chon Buri on Thursday evening.

Police chief Gen Suwat Jangyodsuk was scheduled to hold a briefing at 9pm on the same day. At about 9.45pm, he gave an overview of the case and assured he would not protect any wrongdoer.

Then he let Pol Col Thitisan phone in to take reporters' questions.


https://www.bangkokpost.com/thailand/general/2171695/fugitive-jo-ferrari-turns-himself-in

Has the hospital issued the cause of death? Now that the body is cremated a bit hard to argue, meth poisoning means no murder, no murder equals no charges and this all blows away,,,,

Originally Posted by taxexile

the whole story just goes to prove, as if any proof was necessary, that thais who occupy this strata of society, are truly devoid of intelligence and their only "asset" is their ability to lie, bully and cheat.

who, if their utterly useless chickenhead brains had even one functioning brain cell, would torture, asphyxiate and murder someone, then attempt resuscitation on them in full view of a high definition close circuit camera.

all a missunder standing, as they are making a NEW BOND MOVIE, catching a big fish.

Originally Posted by Saint Willy

Has the hospital issued the cause of death? Now that the body is cremated a bit hard to argue, meth poisoning means no murder, no murder equals no charges and this all blows away,,,,

Not if someone at the hospital says "The police told me to write this cause of death".

Most-wanted former policeman “Chief Joe” surrenders and is arrested, Royal Thai Police confirms

The Royal Thai Police has confirmed the arrest of prime suspect Thitisan “Chief Joe” Uttanaphon of Mueng Nakhon Sawan Police Station and all police officers wanted by the provincial court today, August 26th, for allegedly suffocating a drug suspect to death.


During the official conference and phone-in interview with the suspect, the former superintendent stated that he committed the incident by covering the suspect’s head while attempting to questioning the drug suspect who Chief Joe stated refused to cooperate. The suspect was later identified as Jeerapong Thanapat, 24.


Chief Joe reportedly admitted to ordering his subordinates to use plastic bags to cover the suspect’s head but claimed he had not intended to suffocate Jeerapong. The former chief said in the phone interview that he only wanted to do his job to protect and prevent people from taking drugs. He also denied extorting 2 million baht from the victim, as reported by many media sources.

Chief Joe also wanted to take all responsibility for committing the crime alone as all of his subordinates only followed his order, according to his statement to the press. TPN media notes that the press conference was highly unusual, as normally suspects in a crime are not given the opportunity to speak to the press or make public statements, at least in recent years.

Police Major General Ekkarak Limsangkat of the Provincial Police Region 6 told the Associated Press that Chief Joe called him yesterday to surrender at around 11:00 PM. and asked him to pick him up in Chonburi on the following day. Previous reports that Chief Joe was in Myanmar appeared to be incorrect.


The arrest report was recorded at Saen Suk Police Station at around 4:00 P.M. today before Joe was taken to the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) in Bangkok this evening.


Additionally, six remaining police officials who were wanted by the Nakhon Sawan Provincial Court were also captured today and were denied bail. This means that all of the officials and their supervisors were already in custody for further legal proceedings.


Most-wanted former policeman "Chief Joe" surrenders and is arrested, Royal Thai Police confirms - The Pattaya News

committed the incident by covering the suspect’s head while attempting to questioning the drug suspect

the suspects head was already covered when he was dragged into the room. the policeman then put the plastic bag over his head and using force tightened it around his neck, thereby applying pressure to the suspects throat and causing him to suffocate. its plainly there for all to see on the cctv footage.

Originally Posted by aging one

His car collection on a salary of about 70,000 baht a month.


Attachment 74771

It would appear that he's been working at a much higher level than pocketing 300 baht fines for not wearing a helmet.

NACC Looks Into Police Chief’s Unusual Wealth

The National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) is probing the unusual wealth of Pol Col Thitisan Utthanaphon, the key suspect in the custodial killing of a drug suspect in Nakhon Sawan.


The NACC has the authority to conduct this investigation along with the police investigation into the murder case, said Niwatchai Kasemmongkol, NACC spokesman, yesterday. Evidence about the suspect’s unusual wealth has been compiled and will today be forwarded to the NACC’s subcommittee on assets inspection for consideration, he said.


The 39-year-old superintendent of Muang station in Nakhon Sawan, one of at least seven suspects in the murder case, is also accused of taking bribes, said Mr Kasemmongkol.


A police source said Pol Col Utthanaphon wasn’t this rich from the beginning but he has built his own wealth out of some grey area businesses including trading edible bird’s nests while he was a deputy sub-division chief at Narcotics Suppression Division 4, overseeing drug suppression operations in the South.


At that time he emerged as a rising star in drug suppression who handled many important cases, which led him to know people in illicit businesses and the bird’s nest trade, said the source.


He later moved on to making money out of suppressing the smuggling of luxury cars and supercars in the South. He earned a lot of money from rewards offered for seizing such cars — 45% of the value of the car confiscated — and handing them over to the Customs Department for resale through an auction, said the source.


He earned 900,000 baht for a car worth 2 million baht, for instance.


The source did not say to what extent this activity could be considered legitimate.

NACC Looks Into Police Chief's Unusual Wealth | Chiang Mai News - Daily News Stories From Chiang Mai & Thailand

Thai Policeman Nicknamed ‘Jo Ferrari’ Surrenders over In-Custody Death

A Thai police station chief, who allegedly led his colleagues in the fatal torture of a suspected drug dealer, surrendered to his senior officer on Thursday after evading a two-day manhunt, police said.


Thitisan Utthanaphon, a former police colonel and chief of the Muang district police station, and six of his colleagues are charged with malfeasance and murder by means of torture after a video posted online Tuesday showed them allegedly putting a plastic bag on a suspect’s head and demanding a U.S. $60,700 bribe. The charges carry the death penalty.


Thailand’s main anti-corruption authority will also investigate the reported 230 million baht ($7.02 million) in assets owned by the former Muang station chief, who was nicknamed “Jo Ferrari” because of his love of luxury cars, officials said.


“I admit all the guilt and accept the consequences, whatever the ruling will be … But I did not mean to kill him,” Thitisan told reporters after his surrender, referring to Jirapong Tanapat, the 24-year-old suspect who died.


“It has nothing to do with money, I just did not want him to see my face,” he said, adding that the suspect was being interrogated because he repeatedly denied that he possessed 1 kilo of crystal meth and 20,000 pills of Yaba, or methamphetamine.


When Thai news outlets questioned him about his wealth, Thitisan, who has been a policeman since 2004, insisted he was a clean public official.


“In my civil servant life, I have never been corrupt,” he said.


The 39-year-old former police colonel, who went into hiding in the southeastern Chon Buri province after the video went viral on social media, asked to surrender Wednesday night, said Police Maj. Gen. Ekarak Limsangkard, superintendent of Nakhon Sawan province where Muang is located.


Sittra Biabungkerd, a lawyer for the People’s Lawyers Foundation, a pro-bono group, had posted video clips of the alleged torture by Thitisan and his colleagues on its Facebook page Tuesday, after receiving them from a junior officer at the Muang police station, 155 miles north of Bangkok.


The lawyers group said it had received a petition from the junior officer who sent the video clips, asking that the Aug. 5 incident be exposed.


After the clips went viral on Tuesday, the national police chief suspended Titisam and launched a high-level investigation.

Thitisan ‘confiscated 368 cars’


Former Pol. Col. Thitisan allegedly liked the high life.


When the Department of Investigation searched his luxury home in Bangkok on Wednesday, they found 13 cars parked on the 2-acre property. His home and the 13 cars alone are worth nearly $5 million, officials said.


But those were not the only cars Thitisan owns, investigators said. He possesses at least 29 cars, including a Lamborghini – the company he imported the Italian luxury sports car from did not pay duties on it and is on the hook for $1 million in fines, officials added.


Thitisan got a crash course in cars during his 2011-2017 stint in Narathiwat, a border province in the Deep South near Malaysia, where vehicles are smuggled in from across the frontier. Buying a car in Thailand is an expensive proposition because the country levies a huge tax on its purchase.


Thailand’s Customs director told local media on Thursday that Thitisan had confiscated 368 cars when stationed in Narathiwat. Customs auctioned 363 of those cars for $30.5 million, with 55 percent of the proceeds split in rewards for informants, impounding officials and others, according to Thai policy.


The Customs director did not divulge Thitisan’s share.


Meanwhile, the international watchdog group Human Rights Watch said the incident of torture in which Thitisan was allegedly involved was not an isolated one of its kind.


“Beginning in 2003 under then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, Thai police carried out a notorious ‘war on drugs’ that resulted in the deaths of at least 2,819 suspected drug traffickers, many of which appeared to be extrajudicial killings,” HRW said in a statement.


“The evident role of the police in yet another drug suspect killing should be a wake-up call for the Thai government to establish institutions that can independently investigate and prosecute police officers for wrongdoing,” said Brad Adams, Asia director for New York-based Human Rights Watch.


For any hope of justice, Adam said, “a prosecution fully independent of the Thai police is needed.”


Thai Policeman Nicknamed ‘Jo Ferrari’ Surrenders over In-Custody Death — BenarNews