PHUKET — A British member of a drug trafficking gang fled UK to become a boxer in Phuket, lived in a luxury villa in Rawai for two years, to be extradited from Thailand.
On September 2, Police Major General Montree Thetkhan, Commander of the Investigation Division, ordered the arrest of Mr. Ben, a 28-year-old British national, following a criminal court warrant issued on August 23, 2024, at a restaurant in Rawai subdistrict, Mueang district, Phuket Province.
The charges include “conspiracy to supply Class A drugs (cocaine and heroin), conspiracy to supply Class B drugs (ketamine), and conspiracy to acquire or possess criminal property.”
Ben is a member of a major drug trafficking gang in the UK and is highly wanted by British authorities. He had fled the country to escape drug charges that carry a life sentence.
Officials had been tracking leads and discovered that Ben had been hiding in Thailand since 2022. They coordinated with Police Lieutenant General Jirapop Phuridej, Commissioner-General of the Central Investigation Bureau, to send an investigative team to help track him down.
The arrest team later found crucial information about the suspect, revealing that he had reinvented himself as a boxer, competing for prizes in Phuket. He was renting a condominium and a luxury pool villa in the Rawai Beach area as his residence, concealing his identity under the alias “Billy.”
When arrested, Ben denied the charges. Officials have handed him over to prosecutors at the Office of International Affairs to proceed with his extradition to the United Kingdom.
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