BANGKOK: Thai immigration police have arrested a Taiwanese gang for allegedly exporting marijuana, a Chinese gang for allegedly running an online gambling network, and a South Korean call-centre gang in Bangkok and Chonburi provinces, the immigration deputy chief announced on Thursday (Aug 22).
Pol Maj-General Panthana Nutchanart, deputy commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, held a press conference of the bureau’s recent operations to crack down on foreign criminals, who used Thailand as their operations base. He did not elaborate on the timings of the operations.
In the first case, he said a Taiwanese gang was busted at its condominium room in Bangkok’s Huay Kwang district, netting two suspects.
Panthana identified the two Taiwanese suspects as Chang, 29 and Lin, 30.
He said when immigration police raided Chang’s condo room, they found the two suspects and two passports of two other Taiwanese men. Lin told police that the two other suspects had fled.
Police found 42 grams of magic mushroom in the condo room. Chang was also found to have overstayed his visa.
The raid followed a tip-off that the Taiwanese gang sold marijuana online and exported it back to Taiwan.
Chang was also wanted on drug charges in Taiwan, Panthana added.
In the second case, police arrested three Chinese men on allegations that they operated an online gambling network.
Panthana said the arrest was made at a rented house in Chonburi following a request from the Chinese embassy in Bangkok.
The three Chinese suspects were identified as Chang, Xu Jiang and Xu.
Panthana said the embassy sought help from the immigration police to locate and arrest Xu, 47, on charges of public fraud and operating an online gambling den. The two other suspects were found with Xu during the raid.
Panthana said the three Chinese had used Vanuatu passports to enter Thailand to avoid detection.
In the third case, the immigration police arrested eight South Korean men at a rented condo room in Bangkok’s Ekamai area on suspicion of running a call-centre gang to deceive their South Korean compatriots. They had started renting the room on July 1.
They said they were hired to deceive South Koreans back home to invest in a fake bank and they would be paid commissions from the amounts invested by the victims.
They were charged with working without a permit and their visas revoked. Some of them were also wanted in South Korea on fraud charges, Panthana said. - The Nation/ANN
