AN INSPECTION of three oil-smuggling boats that escaped from Marine Police pier in Sattahip, Chonburi, and were later seized off Songkhla city in the South found that only 5,000 out of 330,000 litres of contraband oil now remain, Amarin TV said today (June 20).
Pol.Col. Paramet Phoinok, head of Marine Police in Songkhla, together with representatives from Oil Smuggling Suppression Centre, Excise and Customs departments and Scientific Crime Detection Centre 9 checked the three large boats after officials had pumped the remaining oil into prepared tanks.
It was found that the boat named Kam Rai Ngern only had 1,300 litres of oil left, JP now had 3,600 litres while what remained on Dao Rung could not be pumped out.
This adds up to around 5,000 litres out of 330,000 litres the three boats were carrying when they disappeared from Sattahip.
Earlier Pol. Maj. Gen. Jaroonkiat Pankaew, deputy chief of Central Investigation Bureau, and his team brought the eight remaining crew members out of approximately 16 who had escaped on the three boats to Bangkok on an airplane.
Also brought to the capital from Songkhla were a GPS tracking device, radio communication equipment and the clothes they wore the day they escaped.
A CIB team was waiting for them and took them in a van to their headquarters for interrogation.
Reporters at the scene said all eight looked tense and refused to answer their questions.
The crews of three out of five oil-smuggling boats moored at Marine Police pier in Sattahip had sailed to Cambodia at nightfall on Tuesday June 11 reaching the neighbouring country the next day.
The oil was sold there and the crew worked on changing the appearance of the boats so as to continue using them. The colour of one of them, Kam Rai Ngern, was completely changed from red to green but work on the other two was halted as the crew had to quickly flee with police getting close to them.
Some of the crew members got left behind in Cambodia because they had taken turns for shore leave and had to sail away quickly to escape the police.
CAPTIONS:
Top: One of the three oil-smuggling boats being inspected.
Front Page: The eight arrested crew members arriving in Bangkok. Both photos: Amarin TV
Also read: Police confident those behind escape of oil-smuggling boats will be prosecuted
3 oil-smuggling boats have arrived at Songkhla, 2 racketeers being probed
Contraband oil, many crew members missing from seized boats
A lot of movement at pier before 3 oil-smuggling boats disappeared
3 missing oil-smuggling boats heading for Trat then neighbouring waters
