Fake dollar bills found in security boxes of dead Taiwanese man
Thai police found fake dollar bills and tools for making cash in two security boxes belonging to the Taiwanese man found dead last week in a Bangkok hotel. The murder is suspected to be related to a conflict within a criminal gang.
The Taiwanese man, Chu Chiang-shen, was found dead last week in room number 618 on the sixth floor of the Niran Grand Hotel in Bangkok’s Udomsuk district. His arms and legs were bound, and the wounds on his body indicated that he had been tortured to death.
Officers discovered three foreign suspects and one Thai suspect involved in the murder. Two suspects, a 21 year old Burmese man named Zwe Lin Pyae and a 40 year old Cameroonian man named Hohn Agbor, were arrested.
A 37 year old Thai woman named Naphatsada and her 37 year old Iranian boyfriend named Mamid Reza Mohagheghi are still at large. Some Thai news agencies reported that the couple had already left Thailand to avoid arrest.
As well as searching for the suspects, officers were also looking for Chu’s mobile phone and laptop to establish the cause of the murder. Two security boxes belonging to Chu were also opened yesterday, November 20, in a bid to find more evidence.
Officers from Bangna Police Station invited Chu’s family members to witness the opening of the boxes. What the officers found in the first box were fake banknotes resembling US dollar bills and tools for making counterfeit money. The amount of counterfeit currency was not disclosed by the officers. Nothing was found in the second box.
Chu’s family members said they were unaware of his business and that he had never told them about the production of the counterfeit banknotes. The family urged officials to search for Chu’s missing phone and laptop, believing that they contained important information about the murder.
The family would hold a funeral and cremation ceremony at Bangna Nok Temple in Bangkok. They would return to Taiwan with Chu’s remains.
Based on the counterfeit money found in the boxes, police suspect that the deceased and the suspects may have been involved in illegal business together and had a conflict that later led to the murder. Further investigations are ongoing to confirm the suspicions.
