One Dane, 36 year old Kim Lindegaard Nielsen, was today, Tuesday, arrested in Pattaya when he arrived from Koh Samui where he lives in an extremely expensive house.
Mr. Col Piyawat Kingket, spokesman for Thailand’s Department of Special Investigations, has told international press that it is believed the arrested 36 year-old Dane as well as the two British men, who have also been arrested in this case, are members of the Bandidos motorcycle gang, which is a US-based international crime syndicate (in Denmark, its members are known as “rockers”).
They are suspected of blackmailing various businessmen as well as carrying out systematic money laundry. Thai Police believe the gang has been using Koh Samui as a base for criminal activities – with several of their victims being various businesses and restaurants in Patthaya.
“The investigation found that the Bandidos gang imported more than 3 billion Thai Baht and laundered it in Koh Samui in the form of investments in several tourist businesses,” Police spokesman Col Piyawat Kingket tells British daily The Sun.
The gang reportedly bribed officials to issue land certificates for illegal real estate sales, and had been involved in at least seven illegal land development projects in Koh Samui. The detained suspects now face charges of organized crime, extortion, bribery and money laundering, punishable by a maximum of 14 years in prison.
One Dane Still At Large
A team of 100 police officers from the Crime Suppression Division, Anti-Money Laundering Office and Department of Special Investigations conducted the raids at the suspects’ homes in Koh Samui. Thai police are now searching for three suspected Thai collaborators, as well as a second Danish member of the Bandidos gang, 35 year old Peter Rosenberg, who at first was thought to have escaped during the raid. Later it was discovered that he was already in Denmark in preparation for a meeting to take place there. He was acquitted a few years ago in the court case following the brutal assassination of ex-gang-member Claus Bork Hansen, who was killed in 2001 by 19 gun shots and five to six riffle shots on a street in Vanloese, Denmark.
The two Danes are suspected of having laundered approximately 450 million DKK over the course of several years.
The arrested Kim Lindegaard Nielsen was transferred from Pattaya to Bangkok to be guarded under tightened security. Thai police does not expect that he will be transferred to Denmark before his case has been tried in a court in Thailand.
Operation
Pol.Gen. Dussadee Areeya, chief of Department of Special Investigation Police’s Information Technology, raided houses and businesses belonging to the seven suspects at 05.45 am and apprehended all of them on court order.
Pol. Gen. Dussadee said according to Thai News Agency TNA, that the gang operated through a land company jointly set up with the Thai nationals.
”Once they sold a piece of land to a buyer, they would add that buyer as the company’s board member and only part of the money from the deal would change hands in Thailand and the rest transferred to overseas,” said the police general.(
