British drug fugitive Richard Wakeling arrested in Bangkok

British fugitive Richard Wakeling, wanted on narcotics trafficking charges, was arrested in Bangkok on Friday. The National Crime Agency of the UK requested cooperation from Thailand’s Central Investigation Bureau (CIB) in the arrest of the man from Brentwood, Essex.

The 54 year old Wakeling had been sentenced to 11 years in prison for attempted amphetamine smuggling of product worth about 8 million British pounds into the UK from Italy in 2016. Border Force colleagues stopped a truck containing the drugs at the Channel Tunnel train on April 9, 2016. The importation was set up by Wakeling leading to authorities seeking his arrest.

He fled the UK the day before his trial in 2018 and was put on the National Crime Agency’s Most Wanted list.

CIB police discovered…