Gunrunner Wuthikorn Naruenartwanich, who Indian intelligence had been tracking for two years, was caught in a spa in Bangkok.
The 57-year-old Thai national is likely to be extradited to India, as he is accused of supplying Chinese arms to insurgents in Northeast India.
One of Wuthikorn’s arms deals included 600 AK-47 rifles, 2,000 grenades, sub-machine guns, rocket-launchers and ammunition, sent through a shipping agent in Bangkok. The consignment was to be shipped from Beihai port in South China Sea near Vietnam to Cox’s Bazar port in Bangladesh. From there, the weapons were to be loaded aboard fishing trawlers and smuggled into India.
Wuthikorn’s arrest also underlines Thailand’s emergence as a hub for arms traffickers. Many Indian underworld gangsters have used Thailand as their operating base, thanks to the country’s strategic location and easy visa regime.
Underworld don Chhota Rajan hid in a Bangkok safe house before he was attacked by a rival gangster in 2000. According to his aide Santosh Shetty, who was deported from Thailand to India in 2011, Rajan fled Thailand with the help of local authorities, reported The Week.
Photo: Dunya
