Three Chinese nationals - two men and a woman - have been arrested for allegedly abducting a female compatriot and extorting about 3.2 million baht from her, police said.
Police said the three were arrested on Saturday at a hotel in Aranyaprathet district, Sa Kaeo province and were brought to Thong Lor police station in Bangkok for interrogation.
The action followed a complaint filed with Thong Lor police on Friday by a Chinese woman, Menglu Weng, 32, who was studying for a bachelor's degree. The police did not reveal her identity.
Ms Menglu said that on the night of Thursday, March 16, she had an appointment with a Chinese woman about her age, who she recently met, to eat at a restaurant in Ekamai area. After the meal, the woman led her through the car park to a black Toyota Alphard. There, one Chinese man forced her at a knife-point into the vehicle, while another Chinese man was behind the wheel. Her dinner companion also got into the van.
After the vehicle drove off, the man with the knife forced her to transfer 250,000 yuan and 8,000 USDT (the cryptocurrency stablecoin Tether) with her mobile phone to an account.
Ms Menglu and the other woman spent the night in the van with the two men. That night, one of the men forced her to call her boyfriend in China to transfer another 50,000 USDT to her imToken application. The money was then transferred to the same account.
On Friday morning, the two Chinese men let the two women out in Min Buri area of Bangkok. They had extorted cash and cryptocurrency worth about 3.2 million baht in total from the victim.
Ms Menglu said she went separately from the female companion to her condominium in Asoke area before filing a complaint with Thong Lor police.
Thong Lor police went to the restaurant in Ekamai area. Recordings from security cameras showed the two Chinese women got into a Toyota Alphard. From examining the footage, police suspected the other woman was acting as bait in the extortion plan.
The police later found the Toyota Alphard was rented from a car hire shop for use from March 15-17 at 5,000 baht per day. The vehicle was returned to the shop on March 17.
The police suspected the two Chinese men and the other Chinese woman were from the same gang. They conducted an investigation.
The investigation revealed the two Chinese men and the woman stayed at a hotel in Pattaya (on Pattaya South road in Chon Buri's Bang Lamung district) before leaving for Sa Kaeo province, where they stayed at the Hitz Hotel in Aranyaprathet district.
The three were arrested at the hotel on Sunday morning and taken to Bangkok for further questioning at Thong Lor police station.
The police did not reveal the identities of the three suspects.
