Thai immigration police chief Nathorn Phrosunthorn told a press conference yesterday that his agency was informed by Italian authorities that suspect Mauro Vincenzo Saguata had fled Italy and was hiding in Thailand. Subsequent probe located the man on May 22 renting an apartment in Chon Buri’s Bang Lamung district, where he was arrested. The initial probe found that Saguata was an executive of Safe 3 Italia, a subsidiary of Cooporation 2000. He had allegedly forged documents to secure a bank loan and money equivalent to Bt50 million from the public, before fleeing to Thailand in 2013.

Nathorn said that the second suspect, Romanian national Marian Nicolau, the alleged leader of a skimmer gang in Europe, had lied low in Udon Thani’s Muang district. He travelled in and out of Thailand 18 times between 2013-16 before his arrest.

Natthorn said he had instructed all units under the Immigration Bureau to crack down on people making illegal entry and undocumented migrant workers from May 18 until Tuesday. This had resulted in the arrest of 6,496 foreigners, including 3,081 Myanmar nationals, 1,976 Laotians, and 732 Cambodians. These people would be deported and blacklisted as part of efforts to tackle the problem of visa overstay, he added.

Meanwhile, another Cambodian man was arrested yesterday for allegedly beating up a group of Department of Special Investigation officials, who had cracked down on fake brand-name goods, and damaging two cars at Sa Kaew’s Rong Kluea Market in February. With the arrest of Hung U Sri, 22, who returned to the market after hiding in his country for three months, police have taken into custody a total of five suspects of the eight Cambodians wanted in this case.