Immigration police have arrested a 37 year old Chinese man at a house in Pattaya on an Interpol notice sought by China, where he is accused of running gambling operations that cost 1.5 billion baht.
The arrest also brought officers back to what they found at the same address last year, which has now put a young girl’s Thai nationality in doubt.
Searching the house on April 10, 2025, officers found a 33 year old Chinese woman living there on a temporary visa granted because she was supporting a child who held Thai nationality.
The child, a girl then aged two, was in the house. Her birth certificate named a 22 year old Thai man as her father.
DNA tests showed he is not related to her. The man arrested this week is her biological father.
Police have sent the evidence to the Pattaya registry office, which will consider revoking the girl’s Thai nationality.
They are also pursuing what they describe as a trade in paid paternity, men hired to be registered as fathers on paper, and are looking at whoever certified this one.
A complaint has been filed against the woman at Muang Pattaya police station over using the documents to extend her stay in Thailand.
Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol Lt Gen Nopsin Phoonsawat said the operation followed instructions from Prime Minister and Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and from the national police chief to clear foreign nationals committing crimes out of the country.
He then met Chon Buri provincial police, the tourist police, the district administration and Pattaya City to agree tighter checks across the resort.
Officers will patrol tourist areas, businesses and accommodation, check foreign nationals’ immigration status and watch people suspected of crime. Facial recognition and other systems will be used to screen for people wanted on warrants, with databases linked between agencies.
The girl’s status now rests with the registry office, which has not said when it will decide or what happens to her if the nationality goes. The bureau gave 1178 as its number for tip-offs.
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