Working with officers from Bang Phli Police Station in Samut Prakan, police armed with a search warrant issued by Phuket Provincial Court (No. 32/2567) searched a house at the Patcharee Thalang housing estate in Moo 1, Thepkrasattri yesterday (Feb 8).
At the house, officers arrested Thai national Kanyathanat Tosatham, 32, who was wanted on an arrest warrant issued by the Samut Prakan Provincial Court (No. 32/2024), said an official report of the raid.
Kanyathanat was wanted on charges of conspiring to commit fraud by posing as someone else and with entering false information into a computer system.
Police also arrested two Nigerian men at the house. Police did not name the two men, but confirmed that one of them had overstayed in the country 1,401 days (3 years, 10 months and 6 days), while the other had overstayed in the country 1,728 days (4 years, 8 months and 4 weeks).
Police also seized eight grams of cocaine that was separated into packets of one gram each, and a digital scale.
Police also seized a variety of bankbooks for different bank accounts.
Pol Lt Col Pittaya Thepmuang of Tourist Police Division 3 explained that officers had discovered that the three were involved in operating a romance scam using a Facebook page to present a fake identity in order to deceive others into transferring money.
Their victims were all throughout the country, who had altogether lost a large amount of money, he said.
The victims transferred money online to various accounts, and Kanyathanat withdraw cash from the accounts and transferred money to accounts held by other members of the gang, he explained.
As for the drugs found, the suspects had confessed to selling the cocaine to foreign tourists as a sideline.
The three are now in police custody and will face legal action, Lt Col Pittaya said.