Phuket police arrest fugitive Belgian

[webfact]

Phuket police arrest fugitive Belgian


Home grown weed in Belgium got Mr Lagrou in trouble in Phuket.

PHUKET: -- Immigration police have arrested a Belgian man who is wanted in his home country for trade in contraband and growing marijuana, police said.


Patrick Lagrou, 55, was arrested in Phuket on Saturday night by immigration police led by Pol Col Sanchai Chokkhayaikij, the Phuket immigration police chief.

Pol Col Sanchai said Mr Lagrou was wanted in Belgium for growing marijuana and was found to have accumulated wealth of about 25 milllion euros (about B1 billion) from trade in contraband.

He escaped arrest in Belgium and fled to Thailand, leading to his being apprehended in Phuket at the request of the Belgian authorities.

Mr Lagrou is being detained for further legal proceedings.

Source: http://www.thephuketnews.com/phuket-police-arrest-fugitive-belgian-49555.php


-- Phuket News 2014-11-10

[RustBucket]

Have you noticed that there is a spate of arrests of Europeans wanted in their home countries.

Police trying to counter their crap reputation due to the damage it received from the Kho Tao case farce?

[shirtless]

I guess for this Belgian the holiday is over.

[stopthegreed]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

[Valentine]

Not sure how you can equate growing marijuana & trading in contraband to being a scum of the earth drug dealer. Depending on what contraband he was dealing he may well be scum but nothing in the report to indicate what it was. Marijuana is legal in many places now & is used by many for medicinal purposes http://www.trueactivist.com/still-believe-nature-got-it-wrong-top-10-health-benefits-of-marijuana/

[Colabamumbai]

Marijuana is available legally now in most parts of North America including Canada, with a doctors letter you can order online, courier delivered. Various qualities and prices. The medicinal benefits outweigh any preconceived negative ones.

[Colabamumbai]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

Personal Experience?

[Oryx816]

I guess Mr. Lagrou found out the grass isn't greener in Thailand. Anyway, it is high time the Thai police do their job and put someone in the joint.

And other puns....

Edited November 10, 2014 by Oryx816

[Roel]

Not a serious crime in Belgium. They are not after him or the marijuana. They are after his 25 million Euro so Belgium can give that to the EU who then use it to bail out Greece.

[Lupatria]

Not a serious crime in Belgium. They are not after him or the marijuana. They are after his 25 million Euro so Belgium can give that to the EU who then use it to bail out Greece.

OMB -You mean Costas is getting it?

[The manic]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

Don't be silly. Your view is deluded. They provide a service to their customers just like any other business. If you cannot distinguish between pot and heroin and lump all drugs together as being the same then you are the one who does a disservice to your family, community and yourself.

[Pieter1964]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

Bullshit.

The user is to blame, nobody else.

If nobody buys it, then is will not be produced and no profit will be made.

Alcohol, cigarettes and many more stuff is same addictive, but nobody complains about that.

Make it legal, if they want to use it, up to them.

If they wanna die from it, up to them.

But not blame somebody else for providing things you are not able to withstand.

[maidee]

in some foreign articles, they state he owns several villa's in phuket... stupid news reporting right, as farang can never own the land, so the villa's belong to his wife / girlfriends / thai "business" partner, right

[gyrosman]

You think if you have 25 million euros of illegal money you be smart enough to go to a country with no extradition laws! Try South America next time.

[bernd1616]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

tell this the biggest drug dealer in the world. the dea of the usa because they have the rigth to deal with any drugs. anyhow looks like you have no idea about this "dangerous" drug called marijuana. smoking cigarettes is far more dangerous. don´t forget this when you smoke the next time or when you take a alcoholic drink

[vogie]

Not sure how you can equate growing marijuana & trading in contraband to being a scum of the earth drug dealer. Depending on what contraband he was dealing he may well be scum but nothing in the report to indicate what it was. Marijuana is legal in many places now & is used by many for medicinal purposes http://www.trueactivist.com/still-believe-nature-got-it-wrong-top-10-health-benefits-of-marijuana/

Maybe if they burgled your house to fund their drug habit, you may agree that they are indeed 'scum'

[Guitar God]

In places here drugs are legal, people don't have to resort to theft. It's the laws to blame on that one.

In Portugal drugs are legal and problems are dealth with as health issues, not criminal. I think cocaine costs around $100-150 a gram, with a DEA license, researchers, pharmacies etc. can buy it for less than $10 a gram, I've seen the catalog.

It's the "crime" tax that adds the other $90-140.

Heroin is probably around the same on the black market, legally obtained morphine costs slightly more than asprin.

If you can't stop theft, and you can't stop drug abuse at least it's better that addicts need only a few dollars a day (free if they're heroin addicts on methadone treatment) instead of stealing $1,000s a day to fence for $100.

Crime in every country and state that has ended their wars on drugs are reporting decreases in violent and petty crimes.

If alcoholism is a disease than so is drug addiction since alcohol is a drug and one of the most damaging to health and society.

Alcoholics are lucky enough to be able to get a government condoned drug for close to it's actual cost so most can support their habit by begging for money to buy a few $2 bottles a wine a day. Are alcoholics "scum" too?

Not sure how you can equate growing marijuana & trading in contraband to being a scum of the earth drug dealer. Depending on what contraband he was dealing he may well be scum but nothing in the report to indicate what it was. Marijuana is legal in many places now & is used by many for medicinal purposes http://www.trueactivist.com/still-believe-nature-got-it-wrong-top-10-health-benefits-of-marijuana/

Maybe if they burgled your house to fund their drug habit, you may agree that they are indeed 'scum'

[HerbalEd]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

Given that alcohol "break(s) up families and ruin(s) lives" way much more than "drugs" ... do you also feel that those that sell alcohol are the scum of the earth?

[Guitar God]

From the looks of the accompanying photo, it appears he was growing only (unsmokable) male plants. Maybe that was his first mistake?

[Kudel]

I am from Belgium and he was on the Belgian news yesterday and there was no international arrest warrent issued for him by the Belgian courts he was free to go,some English news agencys need to get their facts right thats how people get in trouble with defamation and libel court cases in Thailand.

Very funny how some of these English rags in Thailand are run by foreign criminals.

Edited November 11, 2014 by Kudel

[stevenl]

I am from Belgium and he was on the Belgian news yesterday and there was no international arrest warrent issued for him by the Belgian courts he was free to go,some English news agencys need to get their facts right thats how people get in trouble with defamation and libel court cases in Thailand.

Very funny how some of these English rags in Thailand are run by foreign criminals.

Sounds interesting, can you give an example of an English rag in Thailand run by foreign criminals please.

[dabhand]

I am from Belgium and he was on the Belgian news yesterday and there was no international arrest warrent issued for him by the Belgian courts he was free to go,some English news agencys need to get their facts right thats how people get in trouble with defamation and libel court cases in Thailand.

Very funny how some of these English rags in Thailand are run by foreign criminals.

Sounds interesting, can you give an example of an English rag in Thailand run by foreign criminals please.

I believe there may have been a Pattaya based rag, now defunct, that matched that description! No names though.

[CiaranO]

I am from Belgium and he was on the Belgian news yesterday and there was no international arrest warrent issued for him by the Belgian courts he was free to go,some English news agencys need to get their facts right thats how people get in trouble with defamation and libel court cases in Thailand.

Very funny how some of these English rags in Thailand are run by foreign criminals.

No he's referring to pw. He wrote the same comment their to.

[Nowisee]

Criminals, and Justice should be world wide, you cant hide from the law. Well done. Drug dealers are the scum of the earth. They break up families and ruin lives,

So do car accidents, cigarettes, alcohol, prescription drugs, corrupt police-politicians, gangsters, gigs, pesticides, blah blah blah