Police out to arrest growing costs

BANGKOK - Thai police are asking for used cooking oil to fuel its patrol fleet as ballooning oil prices eat away the annual crime-fighting budget.

Anyone is welcome to contribute a source for biodiesel, from large food processing plants to fried banana stalls.

"Thai police in the globalised world must have one hand holding pistols and arresting crooks and the other hand making biodiesel," Lieutenant-Colonel Tepvisit Potigengrit said.

By the end of this year, police plan to have 80 of their 1500 stations nationwide run their pickup trucks on biodiesel.

The cost of making biodiesel from edible oils is 7 baht ($0.27) a litre. Regular diesel costs 28.64 baht.

- Reuters