SAMUT PRAKAN: A 36-year-old Taiwanese man caught using a fake passport at Suvarnabhumi airport on Friday was found to have fled an arrest warrant for drug and weapons charges in his home country.
Yu Cheng Yu was preparing to board an international flight when officers asked to search him. He showed them Guatemalan and Taiwanese passports when asked, said Pol Maj Gen Thatchai Pitaneelaboot, commander of the Immigration Police Division 2.
A check showed the Guatemalan passport was fake, with personal details doctored, while nothing unusual was detected on the Taiwanese passport. He was charged with falsifying and using a fake passport.
During the subsequent interrogation, the suspect claimed he was a Taiwanese national but had to use the Guatemalan passport for business purposes. He said he ran a rubberwood business and had to travel frequently to Guatemala. He told the officers he was about to take a flight to the Netherlands before connecting with another flight to Guatemala.
But the officers were not convinced by his story and contacted the Taiwanese embassy to find out more details, said Pol Maj Gen Thatchai. They learned that Mr Yu was the subject of an outstanding arrest warrant issued in 2013 for possession of narcotics and weapons in his home country.
The suspect initially denied the charges. He was being detained pending an investigation before being handed over to Taiwan.