Thai immigration police detained a Chinese man last night, who is suspected of being a member of a Chinese kidnap gang, as he was trying to leave the country for Cambodia at Suvarnabhumi international airport.
The suspect, identified as “Lieu Bu”, was about to board Sky Angkor Airline’s flight ZAG679 to Phnom Penh, when he was stopped by immigration officials. A subsequent check of his luggage and carry-on bags revealed several plastic ties, cash and the passport of an Economic Community of Western African States (ECOWAs) citizen.
The suspect was taken to Sutthisan police station for further questioning.
It is reported that Sutthisan police sought a court warrant for the arrest of the suspect on multiple charges last night, ranging from illegal detention and trespassing on private property to the possession of firearms in public without alicence and extortion.
Police said that they had invited the wife of one of the two Chinese victims for questioning, after they suspected that she might have been involved in their kidnapping, because she had asked one of the victims to prepare a substantial amount of cash to be kept in their office.
Four other kidnappers are still at large.
The two Chinese victims were allegedly kidnapped by five armed men, two Chinese and three Burmese, who broke into their rented office in the Huai Khwang district of Bangkok on Sunday.
The kidnappers received about 3.2 million baht from the two victims, but demanded an additional 600,000 US dollars, which the victim did not have. They had to turn to some friends for help.
While waiting for more ransom money to be transferred into their bank account, the kidnappers forced the victims into their car and drove them towards Nakhon Nayok, before releasing them on the Nawamin Road in a Bangkok suburb when the 270,000 US dollars had been transferred into their account.
