Police have arrested four foreign suspects in the 8-million-baht crypto currency armed holdup of a Ukrainian in Phuket.
The robbery occurred on Friday. The 23-year-old Ukrainian victim, Viacheslav Leibov, had visited a friend’s room and was there forced by armed men to transfer cryptocurrency worth about 8.56 million baht to their ownership.
About 1am on Monday, police investigators from Kamala and Phuket stations arrested four men at a hotel in tambon Khok Kloi of Takua Thung district in neighbouring Phang Nga province.
The suspects were identified as Arman Grigoryan, 21, an Armenian, Alfred Chernyshuk, 18, a Ukrainian, Ruslan Musaiev, 22, a Ukrainian, and Mraz Atoian, 21, a Russian.
The suspects allegedly told police during questioning that they had tried to hire a driver to go to Malaysia. However, the driver refused to take them there and dropped them off at the hotel in Phang Nga instead. They paid for four VIP rooms but stayed in only two, hoping to evade police.
One of the suspects had known the victim for a long time through crypto trading, police said. He learned that the victim had many crypto assets, so he planned the robbery with three accomplices.
All four were held in custody and charged with armed robbery and illegally detaining and confining another person.