Thai authorities have placed 39-year-old Iranian man Alireza Kolmoham on a list of wanted criminals in Thailand for his ties to a gang which provided forged passports to international human trafficking groups.
They believe Mr Kolmoham has been making arrangements for undocumented people to travel to destinations where they will apply for asylum or just disappear. He does this allegedly by supplying them with stolen passports.
Two of his alleged clients, both Iranians, used the stolen passports of Italian national Luigi Maraldi and Austrian man Christian Kozel to board the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 that disappeared on Saturday, somewhere between Malaysia and Vietnam.
Immigration Bureau chief Pharnu Kerdlarpphon said he issued an urgent order to immigration police at international airports and border checkpoints to arrest Mr Kolmoham if he enters Thailand.
''Our police have his profile and passport photo. He can't avoid being caught if he re-appears in Thailand,'' Pol Lt Gen Pharnu told the Bangkok Post yesterday.
Mr Kolmoham, who calls himself ''Mr Ali'', sent an email order from Iran to buy air tickets from Grand Horizon travel agency at South Pattaya in Chon Buri province for the two Iranians on March 6.
Later Grand Horizon asked its partner agency Six Stars Travel at Central Plaza Pattaya to obtain the tickets.
Stars Travel contacted China Southern Airlines — which operates a code-share agreement with Malaysian Airlines — in Bangkok, so the two tickets were issued for the passengers the same day.
They were scheduled to fly to Beijing and then onward to Amsterdam. The passenger booked with the Italian passport was to fly onward to Copenhagen, while the one booked with Austrian passport was to continue to Frankfurt.
The immigration police's investigation found that Mr Kolmoham had asked his Iranian friend who called himself ''Azem'' and was later identified as Hashem Golestani, 51, to pay 51,000 baht for the tickets at Grand Horizon in Pattaya.
Mr Golestani is married to a Thai woman and has been living in Pattaya for 17 years.
The Malaysian flight left Kuala Lumpur for Beijing and Malaysian officials, who are searching for the plane, still have no idea what went wrong.
Pol Lt Gen Pharnu said he has sent results of the investigation into the Iranian gang to Interpol. The probe did not manage to link Mr Golestani to the Iranian gang.
He said he had checked the records at Grand Horizon. This was the first time that Mr Golestani had been asked by Mr Kolmoham to pay for the tickets.
Immigration police searched Mr Golestani's home in Pattaya on Tuesday.
Deputy spokesman of the Royal Thai Police Pol Maj Gen Anucha Romyanan said there was no record of the two passports being used in Thailand after their disappearance was reported.
Pol Maj Gen Anucha said the immigration bureau was aware of the forged passport gang.
Meanwhile, HTMS Pattani, which has been part of the search for the missing plane, has been ordered to return for maintenance.
The navy ship has taken part in the search in the Straits of Malacca.
The navy's 3rd Fleet will use its reconnaissance aircraft for the search instead, he said.