Three men accused of impersonating police were arrested for allegedly kidnapping a Pattaya woman for 16,000-baht ransom.
Pakornkiat Sangprawpao, 28, Santi Janthong, 37, and Sukjai Horthongkum, 34, were taken into custody Sept. 2, two days after Wanidapan Kwinrum, 42, and her unidentified daughter filed a complaint with Pattaya police in Jomtien Beach.
One of the victims said she and a friend were on their way to buy beer when an unknown woman approached and dropped drugs at her feet. Suddenly, two men jumped out of a pickup truck, identified themselves as narcotics police and demanded to know whose drugs they were.
The women told the men they didn’t know who owned the drugs, but the men took them into custody and drove them to a house on Soi Tungkom Tanman 25 in Nongprue Subdistrict that is part of a Nakorn Kai Chon Santi Oil cockfighting complex owned by Santi.
The victims were thrown into nine-square-meter dog cages with three pitbulls. The kidnappers told them to pay 50,000 baht or be attacked by the dogs.
Wanidapan said she became concerned when her daughter went missing and couldn’t be reached. They finally connected around 3 a.m. Aug. 31 when the daughter called to ask for the 50,000 baht.
The mother didn’t have the cash, so the kidnappers lowered their demand to 16,000 baht to be split between Pakornkiat and Sukjai.
After the main victim’s foreign boyfriend paid the money, the kidnappers took the victims to a house on Soi Wat Boonsamphan in South Pattaya where they eventually were released.
Pattaya and Chonburi police investigators on Sept. 1 inspected the two houses where the victims were held, lifting fingerprints of the alleged perpetrators. Using CCTV cameras, they tracked down Santi, who led them to the pickup truck and, later, to the other two suspects.
Without saying how she knew, Wanidapan claimed the suspects had kidnapped three other people earlier.
 |
 |
 |
