A lot of movement at pier before 3 oil-smuggling boats disappeared

AMIDST both sea and air search for three oil-smuggling boats that disappeared from Marine Police pier on Tuesday night (June 11), a surveillance camera clip has emerged showing a lot of people and vehicles moving in and out of this jetty before they vanished, Amarin TV said late today (June 13).

This followed Pol. Lt. Gen. Jirabhop Bhuridej, head of Central Investigation Bureau (CIB), signing an order transferring five Marine Police officers to CIB headquarters.

These boats belong to “Sia Joe Pattani” or “Joe Nam Mun Thuen (Joe Contraband Oil)”, a big oil smuggling racketeer in the South who has fled overseas to escape arrest, with the three missing still holding oil but the other two were without the contraband cargo.

One of the three boats, named J.P., was carrying 80,000 litres of contraband oil and had seven crew members, the second, Sea Hot, held 150,000 litres of contraband oil and had six crew members while the third, Dao Rung, had about 100,000 litres of contraband oil and five crew members.

Reporters covering the latest developments said a surveillance camera clip taken on Tuesday June 11 before the three large boats went missing shows there were a lot of vehicles driving in and out of the pier and also a lot of people walking back and forth more so than is usual when boats are moored there.

Moreover a pickup truck carrying a large tank could be seen driving in and out of the pier in this video clip but it is uncertain whether this vehicle is related to the disappearance of the three oil-smuggling boats.

Nonetheless this is in keeping with Pol. Lt. Gen. Jirabhop having mentioned earlier that a surveillance camera clip showed that the evening before the boats went missing the crews were loading or unloading cargo.

The latest report is a sighting of the three boats near Koh Chang island off Trat province which is next to Cambodia, he said, adding it is now possible that they have already sailed to the neighbouring country’s waters.

A big effort was made to track down the missing boats with relevant agencies coordinating in mounting both air and sea search across the Gulf of Thailand from Chonburi, Rayong to Chanthaburi and Trat.

After a heavy storm hit Chonburi, Marine Police were concerned that Sattahip pier would not be able to hold the weight of the three missing boats so told the crews to move a hundred metres from the shore and drop anchor there.

However at 8.11 p.m. on Tuesday night the lights on the three boats were put out and early the next morning they could no longer be seen.

At 8 a.m. two Marine Police boats, numbers 815 and 632, sailed out to search for the missing boats but up to 11 a.m. they could not be found.

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Top and first below: Screengrab images show the pickup truck with a big tank at the rear driving in and out of the Marine Police pier at Sattahip.

Front Page and further below: The missing oil-smuggling boats at this pier. All photos: Amarin TV