French drug runner arrested

Andre Cabau, 39, who reportedly copied tactics used in the Hollywood blockbuster “Fast and Furious” when moving the narcotics, will be deported to continue serving his sentence in France. He was arrested on November 20 at a condominium in Onnut for allegedly using a fake passport and staying in Thailand illegally. He has been in the country since January 2013. 

The Interpol branch in Thailand first contacted French authorities to check on the suspect’s history and fingerprints before it was discovered that he was involved in many crimes, had been in and out of prison more than 10 times and was a highly-wanted member of a drug ring, Apichat said. 

In the latest offence, he and other members of the gang allegedly used a caravan of fast sports cars like in the film to smuggle four kilograms of cocaine and 10,000 packs of ecstasy pills from the Benelux economic union (Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg) into France. However, they were caught in 2005 and sentenced to 10 years jail. 

After serving seven years, he was granted parole in 2011, which required him to remain in France. But he fled to Thailand and “lay low”. 

Cabau’s younger brother who allegedly ran a drug ring was also fatally ambushed leading to headline news in France in 2013, Apichat added.Cabau told the press that though he had used sports cars to smuggle drugs into France, he had not been involved with the drug ring in France. He said he had fled to Thailand because he loved the lifestyle and had only kept in touch with his family since moving here. 

Deputy national police chief Pol General Wuthi Liptapallop said Cabau’s arrest came about due to measures put in place to detect fake passports in order to prevent transnational crimes. Looking back at cases until March 2014, he said they had found fake passports had been used in up to 550 cases.