‘Outlaw’ foreigner sweep nets 62 more

Mission to weed out criminals continues

Sixty-two foreign nationals have been detained in a one-day operation against “outlaw” tourists at 75 locations across the country, police said yesterday.

Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn, deputy chief of Tourist Police Bureau, said the raids were carried out on Thursday in areas in Bangkok and other provinces popular with tourists.

The targets ranged from hotels and tourist spots to language schools.

Pol Maj Gen Surachate said the raids were part of operation “X-Ray Outlaw Foreigner” aimed at sweeping out foreigners who have entered the country to commit crime, such as romance scams, credit card fraud and drug smuggling, as well as overstayers.

The deputy tourist police chief held the press briefing at 1.30am yesterday in Bangkok’s RCA area after the operation was wrapped up.

In the round-up, a total of 73 people — 62 foreigners and 11 Thais — were arrested, he said.

Of the foreigners, 11 were charged with overstaying their visas; three from Vietnam, two from Myanmar and Britain, and one each from Nigeria, Laos, India and Malaysia.

Of these, the longest was Okerie Victor Ugiochukwa, 35, a Nigerian who had overstayed by 1,387 days, followed by Christopher Michel, 53, a British national caught in Phuket after 1,077 days of overstay, and Ravindra Singh, 23, of India, who was arrested in Prachuap Khiri Khan 219 days after his visa expired.

Forty-two others were charged with illegal entry; 12 from Laos, 10 from India, nine from Myanmar, five from Cambodia, two each from Vietnam and France, one Chinese and one Nigerian.

The nine remaining foreigners and 11 Thai nationals were charged with other offences. The foreign suspects comprised three from India, two each from Myanmar and Laos and one each from Kazakhstan and Vietnam.

According to Pol Maj Gen Surachate, police recently arrested an Algerian national identified as Abdelasiz Dahane, 57, on a theft charge after he allegedly stole the wallet of a tourist from Hong Kong.

The tourist reported his wallet missing on Wednesday at Makkasan station on the Airport Rail Link.

Recordings from closed-circuit cameras showed a man pickpocketing the wallet at the station.

The suspect was arrested at the station around 5.15pm the same day and police found the stolen black wallet in his possession, along with the 1,020 baht in cash and US$2,680 it contained.

The suspect was found to have entered the country 12 times and used three different passports.

Pol Maj Gen Surachate said all the suspects would have their fingerprints taken before being prosecuted.

He said the crackdown also focuses on Nigerian nationals after several were arrested in connection with online romance scams. Based on immigration records, more than 4,000 Nigerian nationals are currently in the country.

He said Thai officials have also sought cooperation from their counterparts in neighbouring countries in tracking down suspects.

With assistance from China, about 200 people were arrested in connection with call centre scams, Pol Maj Gen Surachate said.

To date, a total of 1,832 suspects have been arrested across the country.