Arrested were four men, Kamol Boonruan, 50, Somchai Sooksom, 46, Pairoj Naboon, 34, and Tanapol Kotdet, 35, and one woman, Sapanee Saeng-Anun, 40.
Three are from Nakhon Sri Thammarat, one from Surat Thani and the last from Bangkok.
Undercover police who had been following the activities of the gang reported that the five were at a guesthouse in the Karon area, with a potential victim.
Pol Col Arun Kaewwatee and his team from Karon Police Station swooped on the guesthouse and caught the five red-handed, seizing two land title deeds, cash, a pick-up truck, bank books and bricks of coloured paper with bank notes on the top and bottom.
Col Arun said, “When our team arrived they were about to play a gambling game called Kam Tua (‘fistful of beans’), in which the victim has to guess how many beans or seeds are held in each hand.”
The gang’s approach to their victim was similar to previous cases. “We discovered that the victim was the owner of the salon who was trying to lease out her business. Gang Kwai saw her advertising and contacted her, pretending that they were representing a millionairess who was interested in the business.”
They invited the salon owner to a meeting to discuss the deal and then tried to persuade her to gamble with them, betting her land deeds and the contents of her bank against the bricks of “money”.
Two other members of the Gang Kwai (“Buffalo Gang” – a supposed reference to the stupidity of their victims) were arrested on February 18.
After those arrests police said the gang were believed to have cheated victims in various parts of Thailand out of more than B20 million.