Thai Immigration Arrests 5 Foreign Nationals in 3 Days

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They asked the victim to pay them another $30,000 to buy a chemical that would turn the black banknotes into usable currency.

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BANGKOK – Two Liberians suspected to be part of a “black money scam” gang have been detained in Bangkok on suspicion of swindling 200,000 baht from a Russian national, police said Tuesday.

Macarthur Kerry and John Hill were taken for a press conference at the Immigration Bureau’s office on Tuesday.

The Bangkok Post reported the  suspects were arrested at a hotel on Sukhumvit Soi 6 in Klong Toey district following a complaint filed by a Russian national that the suspects had claimed to be representatives of a cabinet minister in Ghana and had shown interest in buying a ship from him for 31 million baht.

They later claimed their money was in Ghana and convinced the victim to pay 200,000 baht for fees to transfer the funds from that country, said police.

The suspects later brought one million dollars or about 31 million baht to the victim, but they claimed they had coated the banknotes with a dark substance for safety reasons.

They asked the victim to pay them another $30,000 to buy a chemical that would turn the black banknotes into usable currency.  The victim became suspicious and alerted police.

In separate raids, immigration police also arrested three other foreign suspects – two US nationals on different charges.

Kwame Rasheed Jackson has been wanted by the US Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service for allegedly making false statements in a US passport application, said Pol Maj-General Warawuth Thaweechaiyakarn, a senior immigration officer.

The suspect, also known as Gregory Richard Swarn, applied for a US passport in July 2011 as Swarn, after received one in the |name Kwame Rasheed Jackson.

According to the US State Department website, He is a close associate of Erez Arsoni who is also one of DSS Most Wanted.

The officer added that the arrest was made at the request of the US embassy.

Another US suspect, David Jeremy Gall, was arrested on ATM-skimming-related charges.

Belgian national Patrick Lagrou was arrested in Phangnga province following a request from Belgian authorities that the suspect wanted in the country on charges of planting more than 20,000 marijuana trees had jumped bail and fled to Thailand.

The Dyed Black Money Scam