Three Sri Lankan Men Arrested In Soi Buokhaew

SOURCE: Pattaya City News: March 27th 2007

Immigration arrest three Sri Lankan Men caught up in fake passport case.

Police Colonel Itipon, the Chief of Pattaya’s Immigration Office received a communication from the Australian Embassy in Bangkok concerning three Sri Lankan Nationals who were thought to be part of a major fake passport network and were known to be residing in Pattaya with the intention of moving to Phuket where the fake passports were waiting for the three men.

There was also a suspicion that each man had entered Thailand illegally and did not have visas in their existing passports. The group was expected to travel to New Zealand where they would be able to find work with their fake passports.

Immigration Officers tracked the three men to the Thompson House Apartments in Soi Beokeow where the three were arrested and found to be carrying passports with no visa stamps. Mr. Somaratane Kanishka Manoj aged 33, Mr. Arumugam Navaratnom aged 30 and Mr. Nadarajan Prasat aged 26 were taken to the Immigration Office in Soi 5 Jomtien Beach Road and will now be prosecuted in accordance with Thai law.

Further investigations into others involved in the fake passport operation is still ongoing.