Police have arrested a Taiwanese man accused of making death threats against a Taiwanese businessman and posting obscene images on the WeChat app in a bid to extort more than 10 million baht from him, Pol Maj Gen Surachate Hakparn, acting commissioner of the Immigration Bureau, said on Monday.
He said the suspect, identified as Simon Jiang, 58, was apprehended on Saturday after the Criminal Court approved a police request for an arrest warrant for him on a charge of defamation and extortion.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate said the suspect entered Thailand using an Indonesian passport. Investigators found the man was the leader of a human trafficking gang which was also involved in fraud and the forgery of travel documents.
The investigation was expanded and it was discovered that there were also other gang members overseas, he said, adding that such criminal activities tarnish the country's reputation.
Pol Maj Gen Surachate also announced the arrest of two Guinean men in connection with an online romance scam which allegedly cheated female victims in several provinces out of more than 1.82 million baht.
The two suspects identified as Felix Mario, 37 and Gomis Christiano, 31, belonged to a gang operating in Africa, Pol Maj Gen Surachate said. Police also seized a notebook computer, mobile phones and phone bills as evidence.
The suspects had fooled women on Facebook into transferring money to the gang's bank account and they received about 3-5% of the money they had cheated as a reward, he said.
Their victims included women in Chanthaburi, Uthai Thani, Khon Kaen, Loei, Krabi, Surat Thani and Surin.
They were initially charged with overstaying their visas while investigators put together a fraud case against them, Pol Maj Gen Surachate said.