Thailand not a haven for foreign criminals says top police officer after arrest made in Koh Samui

Thailand will not serve as a save haven for international criminals on the run, according to a top police officer.

Pol Gen Wuthi Liptapanlop, advisor to Thailand’s national police commissioner, said French national Jonathan Piant was arrested recently on Koh Samui, Surat Thani’s famous tourist site.

According to Gen Wuthi, the suspect fled prosecution in France for smuggling 750 kilogrammes of marijuana worth 3.5 million euros from Spain into France in early 2012 and had been trying to hide out in Thailand.

In July the Thai authorities scored on a number of other arrests of international concern, the top cop said.

Wanted under an Interpol warrant issued in August 2005, Hungarian Antal Racz was arrested in Hua Hin on suspicion of shooting two persons to death and seriously wounding 14 others, by gunfire and hand grenade is what Gen Wuthi described as a family feud. A Hungarian court sentenced Mr Racz to life imprisonment, but at some point he escaped to Thailand.

Italian Francesco Galdell was arrested at Bangkok’s Dusit Thani Hotel last Friday. A Milan court wanted him for fraud, acceptance of stolen objects, impersonation, selling pirated goods and copyright violation.

In another case, four Taiwanese nationals Chang Chia Wei, Wang Yi Chieh, Wu Yu Shuo and Chen Li Yen were arrested for allegedly being part of a 21-member call center scam in Phnom Penh. Taiwan and Cambodian authorities earlier arrested 13 suspects in the gang in the Khmer capital. (MCOT online news)

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