Soldiers acting under an order of the National Peace and Order Maintaining Council (NPOMC) are overseeing a search for evidence of secret funds transfers involving politicians and protest leaders before the May 22 coup, seeking the money trail.
About 50 army soldiers arrived on three Humvees at the Crime Suppression Division in Bangkok on Friday morning, seeking CSD officers' help in tracking down the money.
The unit's commanders first met Pol Lt Col Torsak Sukwimol, acting chief of CSD commandoes. Later Pol Maj Gen Kowit Wongrungroj, deputy commissioner of the Central Investigation Bureau, and CSD deputy commanders Pol Col Pornsak Surasit and Pol Col Krisada Kanchana-alongkorn arrived to acknowledge the NPOMC order and follow it.
The NPOMC wanted the CSD to help in the search for funds transferred out of the country by political and demonstration groups active before the coup.
The CSD deployed six teams of 13 officers each to search six targeted locations, suspected of aiding in funds transfers, in Bangkok and nearby provinces on Friday afternoon.
Soldiers took police to the targets, that included the residences of people with political influence and the house of a close aide of a high-ranking government official who played an important role in the now-disbanded Centre for the Administration of Peace and Order.
Each team comprised five heavily armed commandoes and eight plainclothes officers. They searched for not only documents but also weapons and were closely supervised by police colonels and inspectors of the Central Investigation Bureau.
The authorities collected documents from the locations for further examination, but initially
did not find any important evidence.
It was reported later that the Linda money exchange shop on Pradiphat Road in Phaya Thai district was one of the places searched.
Authorities seized Thai and foreign money worth about 26 million baht and seven big boxes of documents from the shop, the report said.