A Sri Lankan man wanted for drug trafficking in his home country has been arrested in Bangkok, four years after he first fled to Thailand.
Saliya Perera Wiwala Arachchige was apprehended in front of the Narathiwas Residence Hotel on Sathu Pradit Soi 19 in the Chong Nonsi area on Thursday. Officers asked him to produce his passport and found he was wanted on an Interpol red notice, police said at a news conference on Saturday.
Officers from the Immigration Bureau, the Tourist Police Bureau, the Patrol and Special Operations Divsion and other agencies had been tracking the suspect’s whereabouts following a request by Sri Lankan authorities to country members of Interpol.
Interrogation revealed that Mr Arachchige had entered Thailand on a tourist visa in late 2013. He renewed his visa regularly until 2016 when he found that he was wanted on an Interpol red notice. At that point, he told investigators, he stopped renewing his visa for fear of being arrested.
According to Sri Lankan authorities, the suspect had fled the country four years ago. He has been accused of colluding with a major drug trafficking gang in his home country. The offences with which he is charged could lead to life imprisonment.