Interpol-wanted Korean hides on Thailand's busiest tourist island for months before getting caught

Thai immigration police have arrested a South Korean man wanted at home over an alleged 10 billion won (US$7.4 million) investment fraud, tracing him from Phuket to a condominium north of Bangkok. The suspect, identified only as Lim, had been living in Nonthaburi Province for 260 days without valid permission to stay.Immigration police announced the arrest the next day on Sept. 4 and said he would be sent home once he answers an overstay charge in Thailand, the Bangkok Post reported.South Korean police had issued an arrest warrant for Lim, and his name was also on Interpol's wanted list.Investigators allege he was a senior figure in an organization called Lucky Nine, which operated 12 centers across South Korea including branches named Seolleung, Gold and Somang.Members served as coordinators, an IT operations chief, software developers and financial managers, Khaosod English reported.The group raised money by presenting itself as a casino business, police said, ranking investors from one star to seven stars.Commissions ran from 3% to 21% depending on how much an investor put in, a structure police likened to multi-level marketing.The money instead went to online casino gambling overseas, investigators allege, or was used to repay earlier investors with funds collected from newer ones.The operation had no genuine capacity or intention to produce the returns it advertised, police said, and more than 100 people lost over 10 billion won, or roughly 250 million baht.Korean investigators sought Thai help through a Royal Thai Police liaison officer stationed in South Korea, Thai Post reported, citing the Immigration Bureau. Biometric records showed Lim entered through Suvarnabhumi Airport on Sept. 19, 2025, under the 90-day visa-free entry South Koreans receive, allowing him to remain until Dec. 17.He stayed on past that date and moved between addresses in Phuket to avoid detection, according to the Bangkok Post. A street in Phuket, Thailand. Photo by Unsplash Immigration Division 6 officers working the island established that he had left for Nonthaburi and brought in the Immigration Bureau's Investigation Division 2 to find the address.Officers went to the suspected room on Sept. 3 and found a man matching Lim's description.He acknowledged that his permission to stay had lapsed, he had overstayed by 260 days, and that he was the man named in the South Korean warrant and the Interpol notice, police said.Lim allowed officers to search the room, where they found three mobile phones, two credit cards, a tablet and other valuables.Police seized the items on suspicion they were used in or obtained through the alleged offenses and said they would be passed to South Korean police to help identify other network members who may have entered Thailand.Thai police arrested another South Korean man in Pattaya in May, wanted under an Interpol red notice over a call-center operation that Nation Thailand reported had caused about 9 million baht in losses in August alone.Phuket is Thailand's busiest island destination and its second largest tourism hub after Bangkok, with the island's international airport handling 19.7 million passengers in 2024.