Police expand hunt for alleged kingpin of a Thai people-smuggling network
Thai authorities believe Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, a one-time senior provincial official known locally as Ko Tong, has fled the kingdom.
A manhunt intensified on Wednesday for the alleged kingpin of a Thai people smuggling network, police said, as detectives probe whether a private island near the Malaysia sea border was a key link in a trafficking chain spanning several countries.
Thai police believe Pajjuban Aungkachotephan, a one-time senior provincial official known locally as Ko Tong, has fled the kingdom since a warrant for his arrest was issued on Saturday.
The probe is examining whether Ko Tong used the small island near the Malaysian sea border as a base to mastermind a trafficking network which has unravelled since May 1 when dozens of migrants’ graves were found on the nearby Thai mainland.
A police crackdown following the grim discovery appears to have forced smuggling gangs to flee, abandoning hundreds of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh in a network of Thai jungle camps near the Malaysia border.
Around 2,000 more have been found on boats in Malaysian and Indonesian waters or have swum to shore in recent days, with fears that thousands of others remain at sea without food and water.
“Ko Tong is a mastermind of the trafficking gang in Satun province [bordering Malaysia], but I can’t disclose all of the details,” Major General Paveen Pongsirin, a deputy regional commander in the Thai south said.
