The announcement came at a press conference held by Senior Adviser to the Royal Thai Police and former Commander of Region 8 Police Gen Panya Mamen at the Phuket Provincial Police Station at 10am.
Gen Panya has been in Phuket since Sunday (Aug 28) when he went to inspect two of the five ATMs on the island hacked and robbed by a group of foreigners. (See story here.)
Speaking at today’s press conference, he said, “We were initially only able to identify one suspect as Mr Rustam Shambasov, 29, who arrived in Phuket on July 14 and left the country on Aug 1.
“We also had images of other suspects which were not clear, however, we have now found better quality images of these suspects and we expect arrest warrants for all suspects to be issued by this evening” he said.
“We will not present the images we have of the additional suspects to the media just yet because it could affect our investigation.
“However, even if the suspects have since fled the country we will use international laws to bring them back. We can send the arrest warrants to the country where they take refuge.
“If anyone sees people using ATMs suspiciously or for long periods of time, please inform us because we never know exactly what they are doing and it might be very helpful to our investigation. Reports can be made by calling the national police hotline 191,” he added.