Six foreign nationals - four Pakistanis, one Italian and one Russian - were arrested in three separate cases during the past week, Immigration Bureau deputy commissioner Pol Maj Gen Pantana Nuchanart said at a press conference on Thursday.
In the first case, four Pakistani men - Ammad Hussain, 31, Muhammade Yaseen, 49, Shakeel Liaqat, 33, and Irfan Hussain, 28 - were arrested in a raid on an apartment in Khlong Chan area of Bangkok's Bang Kapi district.
The raid followed a report that a group of men from Pakistan had provided fake visas for foreigners who wanted to travel to the Schengen Area which comprises 27 European countries. The immigration police sent an undercover agent, an Indian national called Rohit, to contact the group for a Schengen visa. The agent gave his passport to the group and signed a Schengen visa application form. He later took the passport stamped with a Schengen visa back from the group after paying them 7,000 Euros (about 267,000 baht).
The immigration police took the passport to the Italian embassy, which confirmed the visa was fake. This led to a raid on an apartment in Soi Lat Phrao 148 where the four suspects were arrested.
In the second case, Adriano Corrado, 63, an Italian man, was arrested at a condominium in Nong Prue area in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district.
The arrest was made after the Interpol office in Rome asked the Royal Thai Police's Foreign Affairs Division to arrest and repatriate Mr Corrado to Italy for legal action. The man was wanted under a Red Notice for robbery and known to have fled to Thailand.
According to Interpol, Mr Corrado and other accomplices raided the house of an elderly couple, a blind man and a disabled woman, and robbed them of 28,000 Euros (about 1 million baht), gems, bracelets, watches and their bank accounts. Mr Corrado arrived in Thailand on Feb 8, 2020 and obtained a visa for the elderly to stay up to Jan 30, 2023.
In the third case, Nikolai Shtanko, 32, a Russian national, was apprehended by police at a border checkpoint in Khuan Don district, Satun province, while he was leaving for Malaysia. He was found to have overstayed his visa.
A check with the Immigration Bureau database revealed the man was wanted under an Interpol Red Notice.
The database showed that between Oct 2008-July 2023 the man was a member of a criminal gang which operated illegal electronic money transactions in Moscow.
Mr Shtanko was charged with overstaying his visa and was to be repatriated.