A member of a Vietnamese gang suspected of kidnapping people in Bangkok and holding them for ransom escaped from police during a crime reenactment on Soi Phahonyothin 54/4 on June 12.
The 19-year-old suspect somehow unlocked his handcuffs and ran away during the demonstration in the Sai Mai area, sending police scrambling. A team of uniformed and undercover officers and four sniffing dogs sealed off the area and asked volunteers for help finding the man – they suspected that he might be hiding in one of the houses of the area but could not find him after a few hours.
Later police received reports that the man was hiding up in a mango tree. Local residents said they had tried to get him down from the tree with ladders but failed. Police decided to try a different tactic: They pretended to leave the area and waited for the man to get tired and come down himself. When he did come down hours later, local dogs raised a ruckus and led police to the suspect. They arrested the man and took him to temporary jail in Minburi,
The gang’s alleged M.O. was to kidnap fellow Vietnamese and demand high ransoms, and police said they had done so twice before they incident for which they were busted. According to Manager, they forced victim Mr. Wian Wan Tian into a taxi at knifepoint on Pahonyothin 54/4 on June 10 and took him to a safe house. Then they called one of his relatives at 3:00AM and demanded a THB100,000 cash ransom, threatening to cut off his finger and even kill him if it wasn’t paid. The relative sent them THB20,000 first, and then filed a police report.
Later, police arrested some of the gang members on a road near Mahidol University in Nakhon Pathom with a 20cm knife and a white Nokia phone. This led them back to the safe house where they found a female gang member and Mr. Wian with a cloth over his head. The gang was comprised of four men and one female.
Police were taking the suspects through the re-enactment of the kidnapping of Mr. Wian when the 19-year-old suspect escaped.
Photos of the suspects can be found in Manager stories here and here, and on the Daily News here.
