Chiang Rai Provincial Police Officer Killed in Drug Sting Operation

The traffickers left behind two motorcycles and the drugs but managed to escape into the jungle.

CHIANG RAI – Pol Lt Kriangkrai Phumprueksachat, 54, a crime suppression officer attached to Chiang Rai Provincial Police Command, has been shot and killed and an  informant was critically wounded after a planned drug sting operation went bad.

The informant was admitted to hospital with wounds to his head

Chiang Rai Police Deputy Chief Pol Col Charun Rerngtham said the police received a tip-off that drug traffickers were smuggling drugs into Doi Hang village in Muang district to sell to local small time dealers.

The informant arranged a meeting with the drug dealers and then fixed a location in the jungle to deliver the drugs to the informant.

The officer and the informant rode on a motorcycle to the jungle where the traffickers laid in wait.

The smugglers handed over 4,000 methamphetamine’s valued at Bt120,000 and quickly departed, minutes later realizing the drug deal was a setup, four of the traffickers returned on two motorcycles and opened fire on Pol Lt Kriangkrai Phumprueksachat and the informant.

A brief gunfight transpired after the other plainclothes police accompanying Pol Lt Kriangkrai Phumprueksachat, rushed to assist them.

The traffickers left behind two motorcycles and the drugs but managed to escape into the jungle.

But Pol Lt Kriangkrai died at the scene and the informant critically injured.