Two migrant labour brokers found stabbed to death

Eight men from Myanmar believed to have been involved in killings in Samut Prakan

Police and forensic officers cordon off the roadside area where two men were found dead with multiple stab wounds in Sai Noi district of Nonthaburi. (Photo: Sutthiwit Chayutworakan)

Two men working as brokers for a migrant labour smuggling gang were found dead with multiple stab wounds in dense grass in Nonthaburi on Thursday after being reported missing from a house in Samut Prakan last week. Local police went to the area near Suan Ngam village in tambon Ratniyom of Sai Noi district after being alerted at around 4pm on Thursday that two bodies, wrapped in blankets, had been dumped there The bodies belonged to two missing Thai men, identified as Phanphisit Sukdolphat, 24, and Mongkhol Isaman, 23.

Phanphisit had three stab wounds to his chest as well as head injuries, while Mongkhol had multiple knife wounds to his back. Their legs and hands were bound with electrical wire, said police. The two men had disappeared from a house in Samut Prakan last week.

Pol Col Mongkhol Onkaew, chief of the Bang Kaew police station in Samut Prakan, said on Friday that officers had tried to locate the two men after relatives filed missing person reports. They said they had not seen Mongkhol and Phanphisit since they disappeared from a house in tambon Rachathewa of Bang Phli district on April 21. Police inspected the house and found traces of bloodstains on the walls.

Bloodstained clothes and other belongings were found in a plastic bag inside a bedroom. Neighbours reportedly told police that they heard the voices of people begging for their lives on the night of April 21. Closed-circuit television cameras at the house had been damaged with the wires cut.

Wanatpreeya Prathumthong, 23, the girlfriend of Phanphisit, told police that her boyfriend and his friend worked for a Malaysian man and his Thai wife who smuggled migrant workers from Myanmar to work in Thailand and Malaysia. Her boyfriend was tasked with taking care of workers who were smuggled into the country from Myanmar and taken to a house in the King Kaew area of Samut Prakan. He gave them meals and water and was paid 300 baht per head for looking after them, said the woman.

The two men had worked there for three or four months. According to the initial police investigation, eight men from Myanmar were suspected of having been involved in the killings. The gang then put the bodies inside a car and drove to the spot in Nonthaburi where the bodies were dumped, said Pol Col Mongkhol.

The investigation has also found that the eight suspects were members of a transnational human trafficking gang with the Malaysian man being the gang leader. He was in Malaysia while his Thai wife, identified only as Nuanchan, coordinated with other brokers to smuggle workers to Malaysia. She had also hired men from Myanmar as her employees.

Police believe the suspects have already fled the country but say they will continue their pursuit of them.