Drug link to gangland-style killings

Three young men were tied up and executed gangland-style over what police believe is a drug conflict in Kabin Buri district. The bodies of Ekkarak Khongkaeo, 20, Chaichaloem Muangnoicharoen, 22, and his brother Naruephon, 18, were found face down with their arms tied behind their backs about 200m from Ban Nong Kho-Ko Daeng road. All had been shot in the head. Police found cartridges from an 11mm gun near the corpses and traces of a tyre. The three victims, who were unemployed, are residents of tambon Nong Ki in Kabin Buri district, police said. Investigators believe the three were murdered after they met a group of at least eight other people late on Friday night to try to settle their differences. At about midnight, villagers heard gun shots from a forest close to a corn field. Police believe some form of betrayal was behind the murders. They are investigating a link to the drugs trade in the region. A senior officer, who asked not to be identified, said there had been reports of an ongoing conflict between a major drugs supplier and his sellers in Sa Kaeo and Prachin Buri provinces. The supplier, identified only as Mong, has reportedly hired gunmen to kill sellers, especially in Prachin Buri's Kabin Buri and Si Maha Phot districts, if they had not paid for methamphetamine supplies, the officer said. He said Mong is a resident in Sa Kaeo's Ta Phraya district and is reportedly a son-in-law of a Cambodian general.