Three seized oil-smuggling boats ‘missing’

Investigative work is underway to find out how arteries vanished from the Sattahip authorities pier.

Three seized oil-smuggling boats ‘missing’
At the sea police wharf in Chon Buri’s Sattahip area, confiscated vessels are moored at the police station. ( Photo supplied/Wassayos Ngamkham )

Three boats carrying 330, 000 litres of illegal fuel and 18 crew members have vanished from a sea police wharf in Chon Buri’s Sattahip area.

After receiving a report from the Marine Police Division ( MPD ) regarding the disappearance, the Central Investigation Bureau ( CIB ) established a fact-finding committee.

Pol Lt Gen Jirabhop Bhuridej, the CIB director, said he had assigned his assistant, Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat, to go to Sattahip to check.

Three of the five warships that had been sequestered in an oil smuggling case were gone, according to a report from the nearby coastal police station in Sattahip on Wednesday at 6am. They were moored about 100 meters from the sea authorities wharf in a secure location.

Two police boats were sent to search for the three arteries. Nevertheless, they have not yet been found.

The missing boats have been identified as the J. P. with 80, 000 litres of illegal oil and 7 team members, the Seahorse with 150, 000 litres of nontaxable oil and 6 staff, and the Daorung with 100, 000 litres of untaxed fuel and 5 staff.

Authorities said that on Sunday, winds and strong winds hit Sattahip. Because their pier was unable to comfortably hold five confiscated ships, sea police ordered them to be anchored about 100 meters away from the pier.

The five warships at the Sattahip wharf, according to Pol Maj Gen Jaroonkiat, were all seizen on March 17 in connection with crude contraband.

All five warships turned on their lights on Tuesday night, according to sea officers who were working the night shift. Around 10:00 p.m., the lights were turned off. On Wednesday night, three of the canoes were gone.

According to a source with knowledge of the investigation, the three vessels belonged to a network run by” Joe Namman Thuen,” also known as” Joe Pattani,” a major oil smuggler in the South.