Smugglers caught with 32,400 assault rifle cartridges

TRAT – Authorities seized 32,400 rounds of 7.62mm assault rifle ammunition and arrested four Thais and a Cambodian on a speedboat at the mouth of a canal in this eastern province bordering Cambodia on Sunday morning.

An informed source said authorities began tracking the speedboat along the Welu River in Chanthaburi province at 6.27pm on Saturday.

At 9.55pm the boat stopped in the sea off Trat and information showed heavy objects were loaded onto the boat.

At 6am on Sunday navy and local police, together with marine officials, stopped the speedboat at the mouth of Khlong Tha Hat canal in Khao Saming district of Trat.

There were four Thais on the boat – Chatchai Wichairat, 45, Sarawoot Pimpirat, 40, Somsuan Wichit, 23, and Narongsak Treemek, 54 – and a 40-year-old Cambodian identified as To Hattang.

There were also 15 sacks on the boat that were found to contain a total of 32,400 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition for AK-47 rifles. There were logos on the sacks indicating they held Chinese monosodium glutamate products.

The suspects were allegedly hired for 20,000 baht in total to smuggle the ammunition from Cambodia to Trat. The smugglers were linked to a previous attempt to smuggle in two AK-47 rifles and more than 24,000 cartridges in August.

Sacks containing assault rifle bullets were on the boat. Supplied photo