Visa villains vamoosed: Thailand’s Immigration Police pounce on six suspects for fraud, overstays, and shady transactions

Thailand’s Immigration Police recently nabbed six foreign suspects in three distinct cases of visa fraud, overstaying, and illegal money transactions. According to the Immigration Bureau (IB) commissioner, Police Lieutenant General Itthipol Itthisaranachai, some of the culprits are now awaiting deportation to their home countries for prosecution.

Highlighting the first instance, Itthipol drew attention to a group of four Pakistani individuals identified as Ammad Hussain, Muhammad Yaseen, Shakeel Liaqat and Irfan Hussain. They were allegedly involved in visa fraud, offering a Schengen visa application process that cost 7,000 euros, translating to roughly 267,000 baht. An undercover operative from the IB exposed the fraudulent operation, leading to the arrest of the quartet at their Bang Kapi district residence.

Turning to the second case, a 63 year old Italian named Adriano Corrado was apprehended for overstaying his retirement visa in Thailand. Interestingly, Corrado was already a person of interest to the National Central Bureau in Rome, Italy, for allegedly burgling a disabled couple’s home in June 2012. He stole cash and valuables amounting to 28,000 euros (1.07 million baht). Corrado has been living in Thailand since February 2020, residing in an apartment in the Bang Lamung district of Chon Buri. He is now under the custody of Pattaya Police for further legal procedures.

In a third separate case, a Russian individual, Nikolai Shtanko, was arrested in the Khuan Don district of Satun province by the Thailand immigration police. Shtanko allegedly operated a prohibited money transaction service catering to foreigners.

Besides visa overstay, he was also wanted by Interpol, featuring in their Red Notice. His illicit activities, dating from October 2018 to July 2020, allegedly involved a criminal ring in Russia and facilitated money launderers with illegal transactions worth over 1.6 billion baht, reported Bangkok Post.

The Crime Suppression Division (CSD) yesterday announced the arrest of two Korean suspects, Park Kyungjun and Park Jongmin. They were reportedly operating an online gambling website from a neighbouring country while residing in Thailand. Their illegal gambling activities reportedly generated a cash flow exceeding 6 billion baht.