Bangkok”•Thailand has extradited a Mozambican fugitive wanted for a string of kidnaps for ransom and murders, police said Wednesday, as a crackdown deepens on foreign gangsters using the Southeast Asian country as a bolt-hole.
Momade Assif Abdul Satar entered Thailand three years ago shortly after being freed on parole from a Mozambique jail for the 2000 gangland-style murder of an investigative journalist in the capital Maputo.
Interpol issued a “red notice”, or a non-binding arrest warrant, after allegations Satar continued to run a ransom-kidnap business across Mozambique and South Africa from overseas.
The gang snatched wealthy executives and charged up to $3 million for their release.
Media reports in Mozambique and South Africa say a number of those kidnapped were later murdered.
Satar, who was arrested in Bangkok last week, may have entered Thailand on a fake passport and then set up a front company to obtain a visa, the Deputy Commissioner of Thailand’s tourist police told AFP.
“He was extradited at midnight [Tuesday] on a flight to Kenya,” for onward travel to Mozambique, Police Major-General Surachate Hakparn said.
“We will not allow foreign criminals to use Thailand as base for their operations,” Surachate added.
Satar is the latest in a mounting tally of foreign criminals found hiding out in Thailand, a country trying to banish its reputation as a bolt-hole for bad guys.