British fugitive drug ‘kingpin’ Jonathan Moorby nabbed in Thailand

A British drug trafficker convicted over a US$1.3 million narcotics ring has been arrested in Thailand after years on the run, police said Tuesday, the latest example of global underworld figures using the kingdom as a bolt hole.

Jonathan Moorby, 47, was detained by Thai police on the popular southern tourist island of Koh Samui on Monday following an investigation by British detectives.

He has a string of previous drug offences to his name but went on the run in 2014 shortly before an English court sentenced him to nearly 20 years in jail in absentia for conspiracy to supply more than £1 million (US$1.3 million) of cocaine and amphetamines.

“We were asked by the British embassy’s Interpol representative to arrest the suspect,” Major General Soontorn Chalermkiat of Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Police, told reporters.

“He is a key drugs trafficking suspect in Britain, dealing in cocaine and ice [crystal methamphetamine],” he said, adding that he had been found in possession of a fake Belgian passport.