Infamously the men stole B200,000, leaving B1.4 million which apparently thought that they had incinerated while breaking into the ATM with a cutting torch.
The two Colombians, gang leader Arturo Amariles Marin, 57, and Guarin Suta, 45, aka Luis Fernando, opened the back of the ATM with a cutting torch, while the 50-year-old Mexican, Yesid Alexander, acted as driver and lookout.
The robbers had spent considerable time and money on preparation, acquiring some sophisticated safe-breaking equipment.
Police displayed 15 steel pipes and a copper pipe, a cylindrical magnet, a bellows, a black bag, safebreaking equipment that police say cannot be found in Thailand, drills, metal cutters, and equipment for establishing the combination of the lock, including a flexible optic scope for insertion through a small hole to see the inside of a safe.
Also seized were B45,000 in cash and documents showing the transfer of money abroad, four cellphones, a camera and the clothing used by the men while carrying out the robbery.
Police are now investigating whether the men also had connections with ATM skimmer gangs.
Police said the men allegedly came from Krabi to Phuket, and rented a car to get here. After the robbery, police said they drove back to Krabi, returned the car, then travelled to Bangkok.
The trio were arrested at a hotel in Makkasan in Bangkok around 3pm on Sunday, and police said they confessed to the crime. No details about how police found the trio have been revealed.
At around 4.45am on Tuesday last week (December 3), thieves robbed an ATM machine opposite Loma Park in Patong with a cutting torch and escaped with B200,000, but left B1.4 million in the machine.
After looking at CCTV camera footage from around the island, the search centred on footage obtained from the Thai Watsadu construction store on Thepkrassatri Road in Thalang, where two “light-skinned” men were spotting buying materials, which were later found at the scene of the robbery.
Police later announced they were looking for the owner of a Suzuki Swift car, believed to be used by the suspects.