Thailand immigration police swooped on two foreign fugitives in a transnational crime crackdown in Pattaya, including a Chinese crook caught trying to escape over the roof and a Korean drug boss with a taste for crystal meth.
Commissioner Panumas Boonyalak and his team swooped on suspects in separate raids across Pattaya this week as part of a major international sting.
The first collar came in Huai Yai, Bang Lamung, where 39 year old Chinese national Sun tried to pull a Spider-Man, scrambling onto the roof of his rented gaff to dodge arrest.
But his rooftop stunt was short-lived. Officers dragged him down and discovered he was wanted for drug-related offences and selling illegal e-cigarettes. He’d also overstayed his visa by more than 15 days.
“Deportation proceedings are now under way,” said a senior official.
Meanwhile, on Sukhumvit Pattaya Soi 71, a second target was found hiding in a dingy room and he was a much bigger fish.
South Korean national Sung was slapped with an Interpol red notice after allegedly masterminding a crystal meth smuggling operation into Korea.
Investigators say the 60 year old instructed his crew to hide 180 grammes of meth in food containers for air shipment to Incheon Airport. If it had reached its destination, the haul could have raked in over 18 million won (around 470,000 baht).
Instead, Sung had been living under the radar in Thailand, illegally, for more than two years.
Both men now face Thai legal proceedings, with international extraditions and wider investigations into their crime networks also in the works, Pattaya News reported.
The arrests come hot on the heels of another grim case, after two Chinese nationals were cuffed over the suspected murder of a fellow countryman in Chiang Mai.
The body of the victim, named only as Yang, was found days after his sister reported him kidnapped.
She told officers at Chiang Saen Police Station on July 8 that her younger brother had been abducted by a gang demanding a 3 million baht ransom.
But after losing contact with both the crooks and her brother, she feared the worst.
Police tracked Yang’s final movements, including a meal with three Chinese men, Jang, Kang and Wang, at a restaurant in Chiang Mai’s trendy Nimman district.
The group later moved to Jang’s house in Hang Dong and Yang never left.
Two suspects are still on the run. A manhunt is under way.
The story Failed escape: Korean, Chinese fugitives busted in Pattaya swoop as seen on Thaiger News.
