National —
Thai Police arrested four Thais, one of which was a former female beauty queen, for allegedly kidnapping a Chinese man for a 4-million-baht ransom.
The four suspects were arrested in alleged connection of a kidnapping of a wealthy Chinese man Wang Namfen, 34. The victim was stuffed inside a human-sized box and transported to Hua Hin where he was allegedly tortured by the suspects who demanded he pay them 4 million baht for his freedom.
The abduction was reported to Lumpini Police in Bangkok on Saturday, April 15th, by Wang’s friend, only identified as Yu. He told police that Wang had suddenly lost contact with him, and he was worried about his well being.
The investigators then began an investigation and arrested one woman and three men on Monday, April 17th. All of them were Thai, and among them was a former beauty contestant identified by police as Phetcharada “Nam Phet” Saengsakul.
Phetcharada was reportedly the victim’s ex-girlfriend. She broke up with him and got into a new relationship with a man named Suphaporn “Boss” Halmun, who was also arrested.
The woman allegedly conspired with Suphaporn and another two accomplices to abduct the victim, knowing that he was rich.
The suspects reportedly forced Wang to transfer 2 million baht and then 900,000 baht to the bank account of an accomplice called Kob. The victim was finally forced to make another transfer worth 1.03 million baht to the account of another accomplice identified only as Sarita.
The group has reportedly confessed to kidnapping Wang and remains in custody as of press time. Wang was unharmed but shaken up by the experience.
There have been a number of prominent ransom kidnappings in Thailand recently, most involving Chinese Nationals like this one.Another major recent ransom and abduction case took place in Pattaya in broad daylight, as we covered here.
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