Bangkok:
Thai police said Monday they charged a Canadian man they described as a mercenary in the murder of an Indian gangster on the resort island of Phuket.
Officers launched an investigation after Jimi “Slice” Sandhu – whose nickname came from a distinctive scar on his face – was shot dead in February 2022.
Interpol last year issued a red notice for Canadian citizen Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre in connection with the murder.
The 38-year-old was extradited from Canada and returned to Thailand late on Sunday.
“He’s quite a prime suspect and a professional mercenary. He flew in to finish his job and didn’t even carry a gun,” police chief Damrongsak Kittiprapas told reporters.
Dupre was charged with first-degree murder, illegal possession of a weapon and firing a weapon, a police statement said.
Officials said Dupre denies all charges.
Damrongsak said Dupre was a former soldier and mercenary who had worked in several countries, including Afghanistan.
He had arrived in Thailand’s capital Bangkok directly from Canada on a special Thai Air Force flight, Damrongsak said.
“It’s a tough thing, no commercial flights or countries allowed the plane to refuel because they were concerned about hostage taking,” he said.
Officers will continue to investigate who supplied the weapon.
Canada and Thailand have an agreement to provide mutual assistance, including extradition, in criminal matters.
Thai prosecutor Intranee Sumawong said the State Department had calmed Canadian concerns about the death penalty in Thailand, under a new extradition bill.
Sandhu was shot down on February 15, 2022, after flying in from Malaysia on a private jet days earlier.
Police have obtained CCTV footage showing two men jumping out of bushes, opening fire on Sandhu and then fleeing into the night.
Sandhu’s car had a GPS tracker taped to it before the attack, according to the 2022 Interpol report.
Sandhu was deported from Canada in 2016 for a series of criminal offences, and resurfaced when he was detained in India in 2018 over a ketamine factory.
A second man, Gene Karl Lahrkamp, who is also wanted in connection with the murder, was killed in a minor plane crash in 2022, according to Canadian media.
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