Korean-American Fugitive On The U S Wanted List Arrested At Thai Border

[webfact]

Wanted Korean-American suspect nabbed at Thai border
By English News

SA KAEO, June 11 – A Korean-American fugitive on the US wanted list was arrested in this Thai-Cambodian border province, police said yesterday.

Police said Thomas Lee, 54, fled from custody at the US embassy in South Korea while waiting to be sent back to the US. He had been in hiding in Thailand for more than a year.

Police said Lee, who holds dual citizenship, produced a fake passport at a checkpoint on the Thai-Cambodian border with the intention of entering the neighbouring country.

He earlier owned a temporary passport, valid from Jan 27, 2012 to Feb 1, 2012, issued by the US embassy.

Police said Lee was involved in several criminal cases and fled the country to South Korea. He used a counterfeit US passport to travel to several countries since January last year before entering Thailand, police said. (MCOT online news)


-- TNA 2013-06-11

[sjjmmi]

Thailand the hub fugitives

[bigbamboo]

These cunning fugitives always seem to have a few passports up their sleeves.

[NomadJoe]

These cunning fugitives always seem to have a few passports up their sleeves.

Probably got his from Sestak.

[Tomtomtom69]

This idiot would have been better off hiding in Cambodia from the beginning. No visa runs need to be made, all you need is $300 (or a little less) to pay for your 1-year ordinary visa extension. I could be wrong, but I'm pretty sure the Cambo police would have been rather incapable of arresting this guy compared to the Thai police. I remember a saying from Lonely Planet's Cambodia Guidebook "the Cambodian police are only as good as money can buy". Therefore, if the US doesn't pay them, they don't arrest criminals for them!

Not sure how he managed to spend one year in Thailand (doing what?) but without visa runs he almost certainly overstayed his visa. The next update to this predictable story will be how he "was charged with illegal entry" when in fact he probably didn't enter illegally in the first place. Rather, he overstayed his visa so the charge should obviously be "overstayed his visa". Either way, he'll get a slap-on-the wrist 6000 Baht fine and then he'll be handed over to the US authorities who will extradite him back to the US. He may also get a "persona non-grata" status for Thailand but once this guy gets out of jail in a few years I wouldn't be surprised if he manages to use a fake passport to head back to LOS, the land of fugitives.

Big mistake this guy made by coming to Thailand but I'm glad to hear he was arrested.

[sunholidaysun1]

He was possibly on hos way to buy a brand new Bentley in Cambodia and then bring it back to Thailand as a gift to Customs

[BuddyPinkham]

HMMM! They can find international fugitives but can't get the on in Dubai

[Tomtomtom69]

He was possibly on hos way to buy a brand new Bentley in Cambodia and then bring it back to Thailand as a gift to Customs

haha yeah but with the steering wheel on the wrong side!

[NomadJoe]

Not sure how he managed to spend one year in Thailand (doing what?) but without visa runs he almost certainly overstayed his visa.

He was certainly using his Korean passport which is going to make it harder for US authorities to track him. Also, Koreans get 90 days when entering by air, 30 days by land unlike the most of the rest of us.

[MEL1]

HMMM! They can find international fugitives but can't get the on in Dubai

Well you can get a man on the moon, but you can't get one on KD Lang.

It's all relative... Einstein!

-mel.

[rotary]

I wonder if he went to Korea could be be extradited back to the USA?

[dieter1]

"Police said Thomas Lee, 54, fled from custody at the US embassy in South Korea "

under normal circumstances, there is nothing like a legal "custody" in an embassy ! The authorities of a country are the only ones to do this !

But since the US are in war against the rest of the world ("War against Terrorism" - bulls..- per definition, a country can only be in war against another state! )- everything goes ...

besides: no information is given, what "bad" things this guy was doing.

only :"Police said Lee was involved in several criminal cases "

does not even involve, he is been charged...

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

Actually, I believe embassies are considered to be the sovereign property of the country operating the embassy. So the legal jurisdiction inside the U.S. Embassy in South Korea would belong to the U.S. -- not South Korea... Same with every embassy in every country...

That's why you can have various folks seeking political or other refuge inside the embassies of other countries, and the local authorities can't just go inside and grab them, as with the Wiki Leaks founder guy inside the Ecuadorian embassy in the UK, etc etc.

What I'm wondering is, how the heck could the Korean American guy have escaped from custody at the U.S. Embassy in South Korea... Just think about the U.S. Embassy in Bangkok. It's not exactly like folks can just stroll in and out of there at their leisure... Lots of security, IDs, checks, locked doors, etc etc.

Unless, of course, his guards fell asleep and he was able to disable the alarm of a fire escape door and walk to his freedom!

BTW, in a quick check, I'm not finding any background news online about this guy, with the given name, nor about someone escaping from the U.S. Embassy in South Korea....

Edited June 12, 2013 by TallGuyJohninBKK