Mozambican fugitive deported in Thai sweep on foreign villains

BANGKOK: Thailand has extradited a Mozambican fugitive wanted for a string of kidnaps for ransom and murders, police said, as a crackdown deepens on foreign gangsters using the South-East Asian country as a bolthole.

Momade Assif Abdul Satar entered Thailand three years ago shortly after being freed on parole from a Mozambique jail for the 2000 gangland-style murder of an investigative journalist.

Interpol issued a “red notice”, or a non-binding arrest warrant, after allegations that Satar was still running a ransom-kidnap business

across Mozambique and South Africa from overseas.

The gang snatched wealthy executives and charged up to US$3mil (RM12mil) for their release.

Media reports in Mozambique and South Africa say some of those kidnapped were later murdered.

Satar, who was arrested in Bangkok last week, may have entered Thailand using a fake passport and then set up a front company to obtain a visa, the Deputy Commissioner of Thailand’s tourist police said.

“He was extradited at midnight (Tuesday) on a flight to Kenya” for onward travel to Mozambique, Police Major-General Surachate Hakparn said yesterday.

“We will not allow foreign criminals to use Thailand as a base for their operations.”

Satar is the latest in a mounting tally of foreign criminals found hiding out in Thailand, a country trying to banish its reputation as a bolthole for bad guys.

Surachate, who is known by his nickname “Big Joke”, has launched a high-profile clean-up campaign called Operation X-Ray Outlaw.

In near-nightly round-ups, a total of 2,000 foreigners have been arrested, including drug dealers, prostitutes and visa overstayers in Thailand’s tourist hotspots.

Tourism is a cornerstone of the Thai economy and the kingdom expects to welcome over 36 million people this year.

But with borders to several neighbouring countries, it struggles to keep tabs on the volume of people coming in and out, including people posing as tourists who overstay.

Police concede that there are gaps in the system, exploited by organised crime networks such as human traffickers and drug gangs who have long used the kingdom as a base.

But Thai authorities are tightening up border security and plan to introduce new face and iris scanning technology at its borders in the coming months.

We will not allow foreign criminals to use Thailand ... for their operations.

Police Major-General Surachate Hakparn