PROTECTION and safety of tourists and residents was vital on Phuket, the region's top policeman, Police Lieutenant General Sunthan Chayanont, said this evening.

Lieutenant General Sunthan, Commander in Chief, Provincial Police Region 8, was speaking at the Royal Phuket City Hotel where senior police gathered from all over the island.

The island's police force was full of accomplished officers, he said.

''We want tourists to be content when they visit Phuket,'' Lieutenant General Sunthan told the gathering ''If they get the wrong impression, they will not come back.''

Phuket's Chief of Police, Major General Apirak Hongtong, said many illegal guns and drugs had been confiscated by officers during January.

On the year's big murder so far, the assassination of the owner of the Farang chain of restaurants, he said police were 70 percent of the way to determining the killer.

They could not say more about the investigation just yet for fear of alerting the men they wanted to capture.

Businesses that support the local force were also represented at 154 Restaurant at the hotel tonight.

One company, MCW, a motorcycle retailer, gave police a motorcycle for their use.

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