An alleged financial backer of the Yamaguchi gang, the largest yakuza organisation in Japan, has been extradited to Japan to face charges as Thai immigration police step up linking their system with the Interpol database.
Immigration police escorted Shuhei Yoshizawa to a flight at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday night. The 34-year-old suspected yakuza figure, who was arrested in Bangkok on May 1, left Thailand at 11pm for Osaka on a Japan Airlines flight, with five Japanese policemen accompanying him, Immigration Bureau chief Natthon Phrosunthon said.
Mr Yoshizawa was wanted on an arrest warrant in his home country for electronic fraud connected with the Yamaguchi-gumi, the country's largest yakuza group.
In March last year, Osaka police raided his company and nabbed 25 suspects, most of whom were believed to be members of the Yamaguchi gang. However, Mr Yoshizawa escaped and was found to have entered Thailand on March 30 the same year before being arrested near his luxury condo in the Huai Khwang area of Bangkok.
Pol Lt Gen Natthorn said Mr Yoshizawa, who was also wanted under a red notice by Interpol, had been placed on a list of people forbidden to enter Thailand indefinitely.
Pol Lt Gen Natthorn said immigration officials were working to link their immigration control system with Interpol's global database of wanted persons and stolen and revoked travel documents.
Once the merger is completed and with the help of the Advance Passenger Processing System (APPS) introduced in December to help screen each passenger more closely, officials will be able to check within three seconds if a passenger is on any blacklist here or in other countries after he or she checks in with an airline.
The consolidation would bar criminals from boarding an aircraft to flee arrest and help improve Thai airport and aviation security, Pol Lt Gen Natthorn said.