A convicted drug smuggler who fled to Thailand was repatriated to Taiwan today and escorted to the Taipei District Prosecutors' Office, the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau said.
Huang Li-wei (黃立為) was sentenced to 10 years and six months in prison by the Supreme Court in January last year for attempting to smuggle 5kg of ketamine into Taiwan from Thailand in April 2021.
However, he fled to Thailand before beginning his prison term.
Photo courtesy of the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau via CNA
The bureau did not disclose when Huang was supposed to begin his sentence or when he left Taiwan.
It only said that he was arrested at Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport in May last year for using a fake passport.
Local media reported that the Criminal Investigation Bureau's office in Thailand received word that a Taiwanese traveler had been arrested at Suvarnabhumi Airport after arriving from Cambodia on June 1 last year.
The man was listed as a fugitive by Taiwanese prosecutors in August, the Ministry of Justice said, adding that its legal affairs secretary in Thailand then sought assistance from Thai authorities and discovered that Huang was serving a sentence in the country for using a fake passport.
He was transferred to a detention center after completing a one-year sentence for that crime on May 31, before being repatriated to Taiwan, the bureau said.
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