PHUKET: Officers from the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau (CCIB) Region 5 branch have arrested two men for selling guns online through Facebook from their homes in Kathu.
The arrests were announced by the Cyber Crime Investigation Bureau late on Sunday (May 28). However, the dates of the arrests were not reported.
At the first house raided, in Moo 1, Kathu, police found and arrested a man they named only as Kriangkrai, 31, from Kalasin, the CCIB reported
At the home officer found two home-made .22-calibre rifles and 300 bullets, as well as tools and equipment for making guns.
Kriangkrai was charged with possession of illegal firearms and with making guns without a permit.
According to police, Kriangkrai confessed that he ordered all the tools to make guns through Lazada and crafted the guns by himself for sale. He ordered the bullets through a Facebook group that sells guns.
At the second house raided, in Moo 6, Kathu, police found a suspect they named only as “Prasert”, 26, from Srisaket.
On seeing the officers, Prasert fled the scene and into nearby woods, officers reported.
Police spoke with his wife to ask him to surrender. The wife also let the officers search the home, police said.
The officers found .22-calibre rifles with a variety of different bullets, and tools and equipment to make guns.
Prasert surrendered himself later that evening and confessed that he operated a Facebook account that sold guns online.
He also confessed that all of the guns, bullets, and tools in the house belonged to him, police said.
Prasert was charged with illegal possession of firearms, illegally making guns for sale without a permit, and illegal possession of ammunition without a permit.
Pol Maj Komsan Som-on, Inspector of CCIB Region 5, said that Kriangkrai often showed off his guns and animals he had hunted on a hunting Facebook group, and showed off his guns for sale.
Prasert sold guns through four Facebook accounts, and was one of the top gun sellers in the groups, he added.
