Slingshot attacks target Russian tour vehicles
Police have arrested two men who were allegedly paid B1,000 for each tour bus they damaged with a slingshot and ball bearings, with attacks on 10 vehicles carried out before the men were caught.
Police announced at a press conference last Thursday (Nov 16) that the two men were arrested on a warrant issued by Phuket Provincial Court on Nov 13.
At 2pm on Tuesday (Nov 14), officers from the Wichit Police, Phuket City Police, Chalong Police and an investigation team from the Phuket Provincial Police working together with investigators from Region 8 Police moved in and made the arrests.
The suspects arrested were named only as Mr Panupong, or ‘Noon’, (family name not reported), a 34-year-old resident of Soi Samakkhi 2, off Yaowarat Rd, in Phuket Town, and ‘Mr Sarayut’ (family name not reported), 29, from Pattani.
The men were arrested at a house in Moo 3, Wichit, and at a bus parking area on Soi Luang Phor Kluea, in Moo 3, Wichit.
Officers seized as evidence two motorbikes used in carrying out the attacks, as well as two slingshots and 72 steel balls used to shoot bus windows.
The two men were taken in for questioning, and face charges of causing damage to private property as well as collaborating to cause damage to public transportation vehicles in a manner that is likely to cause danger to persons, police confirmed.
According to police, the two men confessed that they used a slingshot loaded with steel balls to shoot the windows of 10 transport buses in three separate attacks.
Two buses were damaged at the Shell gas station on Thepkrasattri Rd in Sapam, Ratsada, on Oct 26. Two more buses were damaged at a tour bus parking area near the SuperCheap store on Soi Palai, Chalong, on Nov 2. Four more buses were damaged at a tour bus parking area opposite Wat Chalong on Nov 11.
Of note, photos released at the press conference showed forensic police carrying out their inspections of the damaged tour buses, namely buses emblazoned with the logo of the popular Russian tour agency ‘Anex Tour’.
A report by Thai-language ‘Manager Online’ on Nov 3 quoted Phuket City Police Chief Pol Col Pratuang Pholmana as leading the team of forensic police to investigate the buses damaged in the attacks so far at that time.
Meanwhile, at the press conference last week, police said the men had confessed to being hired to carry out the attacks, and were paid by a tour bus operator in Phuket named by police only as ’Goh M’.
‘Goh M’ offered the men B1,000 for damaging buses belonging to any of three companies: Chalermphat Co Ltd, First Transport Co Ltd and Andaman Lotus Co Ltd.
The two men obliged, and were paid B11,000: B1,000 for each of the 10 buses damaged, plus B1,000 “gratuity”.
Police said they were continuing their investigation to apprehend ‘Goh M’. At time of press there had been no updates on whether or not police had ‘Goh M’ in custody.