A 37-year-old Nigerian, Nzemeka Ezims, was arrested for alleged public fraud via loading false information online as well as allegedly running racketeering and romantic money-laundering scams.
Thailand’s Immigration Police Bureau chief, Sompong Chingdoung, who told newsmen on Wednesday, said Mr Ezims was being accused of running a money-laundering business by exporting goods to Africa and providing an underground money-exchange service.
According to the police chief, Mr Ezims’s arrest was based on a warrant issued in February by the Samut Prakan Court.
He added that the arrest took place on September 13 at a highway police checkpoint on the Bangkok-Chon Buri motorway’s sixth-kilometre marker in the capital’s Prawet district.
Also speaking, a deputy commander for investigation with the Immigration Police, Sathit Prom-Uthai, said the arrest warrant was issued for the romantic scam the man reportedly involved in from June to September 2018, which led to 13 victims losing a combined Bt2.9 million.
Since the bank accounts used in the crime were linked and led to the arrest of a Thai woman who withdrew cash to wire to other members of the gang, police were able to zero in on five Nigerians, including Ezims, and five Thais.
