PUBLISHED : 24 Nov 2023 at 04:00
The immigration police have arrested six foreign suspects in three separate cases involving visa fraud, overstaying and operating illegal money transaction services.
Pol Lt Gen Itthipol Itthisaranachai, commissioner of the Immigration Bureau (IB), yesterday also told a press conference that some of the suspects are awaiting deportation to their home countries to face prosecution.
The first case involves four Pakistanis who allegedly committed visa fraud. They were named as Ammad Hussain, Muhammad Yaseen, Shakeel Liaqat and Irfan Hussain.
Pol Lt Gen Itthipol said that the IB had an undercover operative contact Ammad Hussain to apply for a Schengen visa. He was told that the process costs €7,000 euros or roughly 267,000 baht.
The IB later contacted the Italian embassy and found that the visa process was a fraud, resulting in the arrest of the four Pakistanis at their apartment in Bang Kapi district.
The second case was an Italian robbery suspect called Adriano Corrado, 63, who had overstayed his retirement visa in Thailand. Pol Lt Gen Itthipol said that the National Central Bureau in Rome, Italy, had contacted the IB’s Division of Foreign Affairs to apprehend a missing suspect who had been issued an arrest warrant in Italy.
In June 2012, Mr Corrado allegedly burgled the home of a disabled couple and stole €28,000, or 1.07 million baht in cash, along with other valuables.
Mr Corrado later entered Thailand in February 2020 and was granted a retirement visa until January 2023. Officers found he had lived in an apartment in Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri.
He was sent to Pattaya Police for further legal proceedings, said Pol Lt Gen Itthipol.
The third case involved a Russian suspect, Nikolai Shtanko, who allegedly operated an illegal money transaction service for foreigners.
Mr Shtanko was arrested in tambon Wang Prachan in Khuan Don district of Satun province. Police also found that he had overstayed his visa in Thailand and had been issued a Red Notice by Interpol.
From Oct 2018 to July 2020, Mr Shtanko was allegedly involved in a criminal ring in Russia and operated an illegal transaction service for money launderers. The transactions were reportedly worth over 1.6 billion baht.
Meanwhile, the Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday announced the arrest of two Korean suspects, Park Kyungjun and Park Jongmin, for allegedly operating an online gambling website which was based in a neighbouring country.
They were staying in Thailand, and their gambling website reportedly sees over six billion baht in cash flow.