handsome Korean man" and evade the law, local authorities have said.

Saharat Sawangjaeng, who adopted the alias Jimin Cheong, was caught last week at a condominium in Bangkok.

Police, who had been on the hunt for the 25-year-old for three months, said "none of his original face was left".

They tracked him down by tracing the distribution of ecstasy to other sellers and buyers in Bangkok.

Witnesses described him as a "handsome Korean man" to police. He had also changed his name to a Korean one, and police said he told them he wanted to restart his life in South Korea.

Sawangjaeng has been charged with the illegal import of narcotics. He admitted to ordering MDMA - also known as ecstasy - over the dark web using cryptocurrencies, the police said last week.

25-year-old criminal mastermind of drug empire changed his identity from Thai to South Korean
by Carla Boonkong & Pranee O' Connor

 

 

Police arrested 25-year-old Saharat Sawangjaeng at a condominium complex in Bang Na Bangkok last Thursday while tracing a South Korean man known as Jimin Cheong to the location after a drug package was seized by customs in November 2022.

Metropolitan Police Bureau Investigation Chief Police Major General Theeradet Thammasuthee promised to pursue enquiries into the international links and support afforded to 25-year-old Saharat Sawangjaeng who was planning to move away from Thailand and live in South Korea before police swooped on him last Thursday and uncovered his secret identity.

Senior police at the end of last week described a resourceful and up-and-coming young Thai drug dealer whose mother has set up a drug distribution operation in France as a serious threat after senior officers revealed that Saharat Sawangjaeng had also managed to change his identity to South Korean Jimin Seong in an elaborate transformation using advanced plastic surgery procedures.

 

Thai police have released details on the arrest of a drug dealing suspect who attempted to change his identity to a South Korean man involving extensive plastic surgery in a similar storyline to the 1997 movie Faceoff.

 

In the Hollywood blockbuster however it is a Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent played by John Travolta (Sean Archer) who undergoes extensive plastic surgery to assume the identity of a criminal mastermind played by Nicholas Cage (Caster Troy) to foil a terrorist plot to set off a bomb.

 

Full story: https://www.thaiexaminer.com/thai-news-foreigners/2023/02/27/25-year-old-drug-boss-face-off-transplant-with-bangkok-police/

 

-- © Copyright Thai Examiner 2023-02-28

 

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"Thai drug dealer underwent plastic surgery to look like Korean man"

 

..because korean people wouldn't deal with drugs and consequently the police would never suspect him, so he thought. miscalculation!

Should of joined the police instead

Gives "losing face" a whole new meaning.????????

Wow,

That's great surgery!

 

6 hours ago, webfact said:

managed to change his identity to South Korean

Reminded me of a classic Dad's Army episode (UK comedy) where the old "codgers" used embalming fluid and make-up to avoid selection by appearing young! Picture shows Private Godfrey who was referred to by Captain Mainwaring as "someone out of Madam Butterfly"!

 

Probably he wanted to apply for a new job.

 

 

With that many faces he should be deputy health minister ????

1 hour ago, ignore it said:

Wow,

That's great surgery!

 

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing...

8 hours ago, webfact said:

Senior police at the end of last week described a resourceful and up-and-coming young Thai drug dealer whose mother has set up a drug distribution operation in France as a serious threat after senior officers revealed that Saharat Sawangjaeng had also managed to change his identity to South Korean Jimin Seong in an elaborate transformation using advanced plastic surgery procedures.

Nice family... NOT

Amazing how Thai's can be 'Masterminds' when it comes anything Illegal but are dumb as bricks when it comes to actually 'working' and doing a decent job for a decent days pay !