More foreign ‘criminals’ found in police swoops

Pol Lt General Nutthorn Prawsunthorn, commissioner of Immigration Police, said yesterday that Indian authorities and Interpol had alerted his bureau about Chadreshkumar Rameshbhai Patel, 40, the alleged leader of a gang that hired assassins to kill Pragnesh Patel, a municipal councillor from Gujarat state in India.
Four suspected gang members who were caught five days after the hit on January 13 confessed to Patel engaging them to carry out the attack, which the councillor survived despite being hit in the neck by a bullet. 
Indian police believe that Patel wanted the local politician out of the picture because of business and political conflicts.
Nutthorn said that the suspect’s syndicate was allegedly involved in many attacks in Southeast Asian countries.
The request to Thai police to help find the suspect was made after an investigation showed that Patel entered Thailand three times – the latest on January 10 at Suvarnabhumi Airport. He came on a tourist visa.
The suspect was nabbed last Friday at a hotel in the Pratunam area and will be deported to India.
At the same press conference, Nutthorn said police had also apprehended a Hungarian couple – Lajos and Lajosne Deaki – who escaped to Thailand in 2009 after a Hungarian court sentenced them to eight years in jail on multiple fraud charges. They were staying here on a retirement visa that was due to expire in July. 
After being contacted by Hungarian authorities, Thai police located them at their place in Chon Buri on January 16 and took them into custody.
Immigration police arrested Zhang Qingduan, 38, at the request of China, where he is wanted on public fraud charges. 
He is accused of setting up a pyramid fund with about 30,000 members in about 30 provinces across China. 
He organised seminars and meetings to lure prospective members who were promised lucrative dividends. However, he disappeared, leaving behind losses estimated to be more than Bt500 million.
He fled to Thailand on September 29 last year and had been staying in Chon Buri as a Thailand Privilege member, having paid expensive fees for his elite card.