“Most wanted” Thai fugitive arrested on Bali after 17-hour speedboat escape

One of Thailand’s most wanted fugitives is being escorted home aboard a Thai Air Force plane after being arrested on the Indonesian tourist island of Bali after spending months on the run in connection with multiple murders and drug trafficking charges in his home country, officials said Monday.

Chaowalit Thongduang escaped from detention in Thailand while receiving hospital treatment. When he was arrested on Thursday, he used a fake Indonesian identity card that he obtained shortly after arriving in Indonesia’s northernmost province of Aceh in December following a 17-hour speedboat ride from India, said Wahyu Widada, head of the criminal investigation department of the Indonesian National Police.

“The arrested fugitive is one of the most wanted fugitives of the Thai authorities because he committed many crimes before eventually fleeing to Indonesia to hide,” Widada said.

Chaowalit – also known by the nickname “Pang Na Node” – was arrested in a raid on his home in the Badung regency of Bali. Authorities confiscated four mobile phones and several fake identity documents.

“We are still investigating the local residents who helped create Chaowalit’s false identity,” Widada said.

Phanurat Lukboon, secretary-general of Thailand’s Drug Control Agency, said police had seized several pieces of evidence, including a fake identity card and birth certificate in the name of Sulaiman allegedly used by Chaowalit, as well as an Indonesian bank account book.

“If Chaowalit comes here, there must be someone who helped him enter Indonesia. Now we are investigating to find out who is the mastermind behind all this,” Phanurat said.

Thai Justice Minister Tawee Sodsong, who had travelled to Indonesia to meet with Chaowalit, said he would be flown on Tuesday by military plane to Thailand, where he is wanted on charges of murder or attempted murder of police officers and others, as well as drug trafficking.

Tawee said Chaowalit praised authorities for managing to track him down after he fled through several countries.

In December last year, the Bangkok Post reported that he had been sentenced to life imprisonment in absentia in a 2019 attempted murder case.

Hundreds of police officers were mobilized to re-arrest him, and the operation reportedly cost around 10 million baht (US$271,816).

Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin expressed confidence that the legal system that arrested Chaowalit could bring him to justice.

Indonesia and Thailand signed an extradition agreement in 1978.

AFP contributed to this report.