Police nab suspected drug traffickers in Roi Et
Police yesterday arrested one of two suspected drug traffickers who allegedly shot dead a highway policeman after police tried to intercept them on Roi Et Highway on Monday night.
More than 100 police officers spent 10 hours searching for the two suspects before one of the alleged, Rangsi Thongsa, 20, was arrested yesterday morning by Kalasin police while he was trying to get a lift in Kalasin's Yanglad district. The gunman is still missing. Police said that on Monday night, Khon Kaen native Rangsi, and the alleged gunman, known only as 'Sam', were carrying 400 kilos of hashish in a pickup truck and ran the highway police checkpoint in Roi Et's Chiang Kwan district, where Sergeant Sitthiporn Chantarangsi, 37, and Senior Sergeant Jirawat Maikhami, 55, tried to stop them. The officers gave a chase and intercepted the pickup. Sergeant Sitthiporn was about to search the vehicle when the gunman in the front passenger seat shot him in the chest. The officer managed to fire three shots before dying. The traffickers fled the scene leaving behind the hashish packed in two large plastic tanks. Police said that Rangsi had confessed he and Sam fled separately and had intended to catch a public bus to his home in Khon Kaen. He said he was promised Bt20,000 by a drug agent to drive the pickup from Nakhon Panom to Bangkok. According to the police, this is the biggest haul of hashish ever found in the province and is valued at over Bt1 million. Police suspect the traffickers were members of a big transnational gang. Covered with the national flag, the body of Sergeant Sittiporn was taken to Roi Et Hospital for an autopsy and would undergo funeral rites at a temple in Roi Et. The Nation
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