Police on Thursday, November 24th, arrested two Nigerians and three Thai women for allegedly swindling women seeking foreign husbands out of 50 million baht through an internet romance scam.
According to Provincial Police Region 4 chief Pol Maj Gen Jatupon Parnraksa, the two Nigerian men identified as Okwutor Peter, 29, and Jeremiah Ndidi, 27 and their three Thai accomplices were arrested at a Bangkok condominium where police seized 20 bank books and ATMs with transactions totalling more than 50 million baht.
They also confiscated 15 mobile phones, a laptop computer and 50 other valuable items.
The Thai suspects were identified as Jaerati Saisin and Nattacha Thongbai, both 30, from Rayong and Yasothon, who were married to the Nigerians. The third woman was a 34-year-old Bangkok native, Ketsara Marksiri.
Pol Maj Gen Jatupon said police acted on a complaint filed in Udon Thani province last month by the gang’s latest victim who was a 45-year-old rubber plantation owner who had been swindled out of 500,000 baht.
The Nigerians claimed to be good-looking, white and well-to-do. They developed close ties with women seeking rich foreign husbands via Facebook or online chat programmes, and proposed marriage. They would then claim that they were detained by airport and customs authorities for bringing in cash that was more than the legal limit, and asked the victims to transfer money to them to pay for tax on the cash.
Police believe Peter and Ndidi are part of a larger Nigerian gang operating online romance scams, led by a Nigerian mafia man identified only as Yusuf.
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