Four immigration officers accused of the abduction and crypto extortion of a Chinese man and his Thai interpreter have been suspended from the police force pending further investigation.
Police investigators have also given out their names.
Additional details were released by deputy national police chief Pol Gen Surachate Hakparn on Wednesday.
Arrest warrants have been issued for the four immigration police officers, who are accused of the abduction of a Chinese man and a Thai woman and extortion of 30,000 USDT, the tether stablecoin pegged to the US dollar, worth about one million baht.
The Chinese man, who has not been named, and his 38-year-old interpreter Namsee Sae Lee filed a complaint with Din Daeng police on March 20.
They said a group of men abducted them from a house in Din Daeng area and took in a car to a house in Soi Prachasongkroh 2, also in Din Daeng area, on March 10. There, the men extorted from them 30,000 USDT.
Police investigators then sought and obtained approval from the Central Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases to arrest the four accused officers, Pol Maj Gen Atthaporn Wongsiripreeda, commander of the Metropolitan Police Division 1, said on Tuesday night.
Around 11.45pm on Tuesday, officers from the Immigration division 1 escorted three of the four accused officers to Din Daeng police station – police inspector Pol Maj Sorawit Inlab, Pol Lt Suriya Rukkhachart and Pol Snr Sgt Maj Peerasak Yimpaiboon.
During questioning, they denied any involvement in the abduction. They were due to appear in court on Wednesday, when investigators would seek to detain them for another 12 days.
Pol Gen Surachate said on Wednesday that the fourth accused officer, Pol Maj Jiraphat Boonnam, an inspector with Police Immigration Bureau division 1, remained at large. His whereabouts were unknown but he expected the man would turn himself in soon.
He had ordered investigators to look into the past conduct of the four accused officers, and whether complaints had been made against them. If they were guilty, it was unlikely to have been the first time they committed such an offence, Pol Gen Surachate said.
The investigation was being extended to include another suspect, also a Thai national, and investigators would apply for an arrest warrant, Pol Gen Surachate. He vowed not to spare any officers found involved in the case.