Thailand’s Tourist Police are currently investigating all 1,400 Nigerians residing in Thailand after recent Romance Scams as five more Nigerians were arrested arrested.
Briefing journalists during a press conference on
Saturday, September 15, Thailand’s Tourist Police Pol Maj-General
Surachet Hakpal said that the Tourist police will soon conclude their
focus on all 1,400 Nigerians living in Thailand.
Surachet said police would recheck Nigerians living in
Thailand to ensure they are living in accordance with the purposes they
stated in their entry visa applications.
Surachet said singling out the entirety of one
nationality for police attention was needed after “many Nigerians” were
found to be taking part in romance scams deceiving Thai women. He said
five Nigerians had been arrested in romance scams.
Speaking during the press conference, he shared the progress so far of a police crackdown on romance scams.
Surachet said five Nigerians and 12 Thai accomplices
from eight gangs had been arrested from 39 areas in Chon Buri, Surat
Thani, Trat, Phitsanulok, Bangkok and other provinces for deceiving 48
marriage-seeking Thai women out of Bt5.9 million.
The suspects were members of eight different networks of online love scammers preying on Thai women.
Combined teams of police
arrested the suspects in Bangkok, Chon Buri, Nakhon Si Thammarat and
other provinces between Aug 30 and Sept 13 following complaints by
victims duped into wiring money into scammers’ bank accounts.
Surachet previously launched an ongoing series of
nationwide raids focused on tourists and migrant workers. The raids were
initially labelled as “Operation Black Eagle”.
He was in August given the additional job of assistant
spokesman for Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence Prawit
Wongsuwan.
Police have been tracking down people involved in online
romance scams since January. To date, there have been 140 cases with
damage amounting to 81 million baht."
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