Pattaya Hell: police believe that Hans Peter Ralter Mack was tortured and may have died from either horrific injuries at the hands of his tormentors or a heart attack due to the terror inflicted upon the 62-year-old German businessman. The investigation has identified evil gang member Olaf Thorsten Brinkmann as the ring leader behind the crime.
The murder of German businessman Hans Peter Ralter Mack has resulted in a police operation to identify possible organised crime elements in the resort city with top police chief General Surachate Hakparn ordering a crackdown and a tightening of Immigration Bureau screening of visa applicants particularly for retirement visas applicants who may have links to crime. He also has ordered police to pay special attention to organised groups with distinctive tattoos and who ride Harley Davidson motorcycles.
Deputy National Police Chief General Surachate Hakparn also known as Big Joke, has announced a crackdown on gang and criminal elements in Pattaya following the outrageous murder of 62-year-old German businessman Hans Peter Ralter Mack last week in the resort city.
The news comes as police investigating the case identified 52-year-old German Mr Olaf Thorsten Brinkmann as the key instigator of the crime which was a case of extortion perpetrated by a crime gang led by the German man who already has a criminal history.
German kidnapped on July 4th by a 54-year-old German who acted as a property broker to lure the 62-year-old German victim into a trap after a meeting
As part of the plot, Mr Ralter Mack was captured by the gang when he met 54-year-old Miss Petra Christl Grundgreif or Petha at a coffee shop in Nong Prue, Pattaya on July 4th last.
Ms Petha had held herself out as a property broker.
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Police quiz German property broker and partner as they impound black SUV in the Ralter Mack case
In the immediate aftermath of the meeting, it is understood that the German followed her to a luxury pool villa, where he was held against his will and subjected to physical violence including torture by a gang led by Mr Brinkmann intent on coercing the German to transfer money to a nominated bank account.
Police have not yet been able to identify exactly how Mr Ralter Mack died.
The arrested parties in the case have been slow to cooperate with them due to the fear generated by Mr Brinkmann who may be a member of a wider gang known as ‘The Outlaws’.
Small chainsaw for trees may have been the murder weapon used to terrify the German man after he was kidnapped and restrained by his tormentors
Police believe that a small chain saw, used to cut small tree limbs, purchased earlier by Mr Brinkmann and used subsequently to cut up the victim’s body, may also have been the murder weapon used at the outset to threaten the kidnapped German as he was held under restraint.
The blade of the saw had blood on it when discovered by police in the chest freezer last Monday night.
It is understood the German tycoon suffered from a seizure or heart attack during what must have been a terrifying ordeal at the hands of his captors.
On July 12th last, Mr Olaf was picked up by police in Bangkok at a bar and nightclub run by a biker gang called ‘The Outlaws’ in the capital city.
Crackdown on Pattaya Hells Angels in 2017
Pattaya Police in 2017, in a campaign led personally by General Surachate, smashed an Australian crime gang called the Hells Angels which had emerged at the centre of a complex web of criminal activity in the resort city.
In an operation in December 2017, police sought arrest warrants for eight foreigners and raided five luxury homes in the city seizing guns and high-end vehicles.
Three Australians and one Canadian were arrested and later deported from Thailand after their visas were revoked. They were also blacklisted from reentry into the kingdom.
Police to re-arrest Australian death row inmate after he is released under court order at Bangkwang prison
The activities of the sinister gang came to light at the end of 2015 when its associates, together with local assistance, murdered a well-known international drug trafficker Mr Wayne Schneider at a rented house in the city in a planned and coordinated operation linked to organised crime.
Brutal murder of Australian drug kingpin in December of 2015 also linked to organised crime settling in Pattaya associated with drug trafficking
Mr Schneider’s murder was subsequently investigated by police in Australia who sent a crack team to Pattaya to investigate the death of the drug trafficking kingpin which was subsequently detailed at length in an inquest held in late 2017.
Detective Sergeant Roe of the New South Wales Gang Squad produced a detailed report on the murder of Mr Schneider who was kidnapped and bludgeoned to death during a deadly interrogation.
The murder investigation offered valuable insight into an extensive criminal network that had developed in the resort city and was linked to the subsequent arrest and conviction of 28-year-old kickboxer and organised crime gang member Anthony Bagnato.
Mr Schneider was tortured and killed at a rented house by a hired gang on Monday morning December 1st 2015 after being kidnapped the night before at his luxury home in Bang Lamung, Pattaya.
Australian Thai couple’s legal nightmare over Hell’s Angel link before Thai Supreme Court freed them
An Australian Thai couple, 37-year-old Luke Cook and 43-year-old Kanyarat Wechapitak were convicted of drug trafficking in 2018 in a case which was indirectly linked with Mr Schneider’s demise in 2015 and the Hells Angels’ network in the city.
Bagnato received the death penalty but was later released from prison when his conviction was sensationally overturned and has not been heard of again.
The case subsequently was revisited when the Australian businessman Mr Cook and his Thai wife in Pattaya, who had become acquainted with some people linked with the gang, were convicted of drug trafficking by a Thai court and sentenced to death in 2018.
The couple consistently claimed to be innocent victims in the case.
Drug trafficking convictions linked with Pattaya Hells Angels Biker plot quashed by Supreme Court
Their conviction was subsequently quashed by the Thai Supreme Court in September 2021 due to unreliable evidence and questions raised about the basis for the case.
Big Joke orders a survey and a crackdown by Police and Immigration Bureau, also a tightening of screening of foreigners, especially retirement visas
On Saturday, Friday, July 14th, General Surachate announced that he had given instructions for a comprehensive investigation and review of all criminal activities in Pattaya in which he asked the local police to report to him with information related to any gangs or organised crime elements which may be operating in the resort and particularly in Pattaya’s Banglamung and Nong Prue areas.
The police chief said it was imperative that authorities do not allow such gangs to be allowed to develop and take root in the city and in this regard, he was ordering a crackdown which will include giving instructions to the Immigration Bureau to pay particular attention to foreigners working in Pattaya who appear to have tattoos and ride Harley Davidson motorbikes.
‘I am asking officials to keep an eye out for foreigners who come to Thailand without work. People with behaviours such as riding Harley Davidson motorcycles and having tattoos on their bodies linked to criminal gangs who apply for retirement visas at immigration offices. They should be revoked and those linked to criminality return to their own country,’ he said.
Crime gangs such as ‘Outlaws’ to be wiped out in Pattaya and Thailand. They represent a serious threat to the country’s image and tourism industry
General Surachate, on Friday, said the Royal Thai Police will wipe out any such gangs who style themselves as ‘outlaws’ or similar sobriquets because such activity invariably leads to murder and represents a serious threat to the country’s image and vital foreign tourism sector.
The top police officer said that, in this crackdown, the immigration police must play a decisive role and this would require more intense screening of foreign nationals applying for visas, more particularly for retirement visas.
Big Joke told reporters that any individual applying for a visa in Thailand who had links to criminal activity in another country should be immediately denied any consideration.
He said that the Immigration Bureau was the first line of defence for the kingdom in its fight against the real threat of organised crime.
Brinkmann refuses to cooperate with police as co-accused, Pakistani Sahruk Kareem Uddin speaks of his fear of meeting the German gang leader in prison
The police at Nong Prue Police Station investigating the murder of Mr Ralter Mack are reporting that Mr Olaf Thorstein Brinkmann, the main suspect, is refusing to give a statement to police or to cooperate in any way with their enquiries.
At the same time, his co-accused are reportedly living in fear of him, most particularly a Pakistani, 27-year-old Sahruk Kareem Uddin who was arrested last week by police in Kanchanaburi at a hotel as he attempted to cross over into Myanmar.
As he was being transported to prison in Pattaya on Friday in a police van, he told reporters: ‘I’m scared, I didn’t do it, didn’t kill.’
Speaking to the media afterwards, his 30-year-old brother, Mr Shariar Kareem Uddin said that he had just spoken to his younger brother.
He revealed that the accused man was terrified of coming face to face with Mr Brinkmann in prison.
Family plead with police to protect man in custody as police sift through evidence to fully understand the heinous nature of Mr Ralter Mack’s death
The brother told reporters that everything his younger brother did was at the direction of Mr Brinkmann but that his brother had not been involved in the murder of the German, Mr Ralter Mack.
Mr Kareem Uddin said that his family feared for the safety of his brother, who may run the risk of being murdered while in prison by the German mafia boss.
The family appealed directly to the Deputy Police Chief, General Surachate, to see if something can be done for the Pakistani accused as part of the ongoing investigation.
It comes as police have also confirmed the arrest of 52-year-old German Miss Nicole Frawell who is reported to be the owner of the house in the Chokchai Garden Estate in Nong Prue where Mr Ralter Mack’s body was found last Monday night, July 10th, in a sensational development in the case which has since revealed the activities of the mafia gang led by Mr Brinkmann.
Plot to dump Mr Ralter Mach’s body at sea
Police working on the case have also revealed a plot by Mr Brinkmann to use an 18-foot Nissan speedboat with a 90 horsepower Yamaha engine to transport the body of the German property developer out to sea and dump it.
Officers have revealed that on July 9th, the day before Mr Ralter Mack’s body was discovered in a chest freezer in Nong Prue, Mr Olaf had asked German friends to tow his speedboat to the Ocean Marina Hotel in Sattahip and the Nga Jomtien sub-district for that purpose.
However, it was not launched into the sea as the would-be crime boss did not possess the appropriate registration documents resulting in Mr Brinkmann ordering his friends to return the boat to its original location at a pal’s house in Banglamung.
Some of those involved face the death penalty for premeditated murder. Police return ฿1.25 million to Mr Ralter Mach’s family from ฿2 million extorted
Over the weekend, police reportedly returned ฿1.25 million to the family of Mr Ralter Mach out of $2 million ($57,770) stolen by the gang from the German man’s bank account.
Police are reported to be interested in determining just how Mr Ralter Mack met his end with reports from some of the gang members suggesting to interrogators that they suspected that the German man had an underlying illness.
The investigating team are trying to determine if this was a premeditated act from the beginning to murder the German man or if he had succumbed because of extreme attempts to extort money from him using physical violence and fear amounting to torture which also leads to a capital charge in Thailand.
All those involved are currently facing a charge of premeditated murder which carries the death penalty in Thailand.
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Further reading:
Germans linked with Ralter Mack murder behind bars in Pattaya with strong evidence in the case
Police quiz German property broker and partner as they impound black SUV in the Ralter Mach case
Police have identified two young women who may have parked the car of missing German in Pattaya
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Pattaya police hunt down the killer of a UK man who had just returned to Thailand from Britain
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Koh Tao victim’s family endorse the conviction of Myanmar migrants
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