PHUKET: Police in Phuket have arrested a Nigerian man for illegally entering the country after a raid on his rented home in Rawai failed to result in any drugs seized.
A joint task force by officers from the Chalong Police, Tourist Police and Phuket Immigration arrested 40-year-old Nigerian national Harrison Shinonzo Onyema at a home in Moo 4, Rawai, at 10am yesterday (May 10).
According to an official report of Onyema’s arrest, officers arrived at the home with a search warrant following an investigation. The report did not clarify exactly what Onyema was under investigation for.
The officers presented a search warrant and knocked on the door to open it, but the “dark skin man” [sic] refused to open the door, said the report.
Officers reported hearing the sound of something being dropped into what they believed was the toilet in the home, and the sound of the toilet flushing, before Onyema opened the door.
Officers found no drugs inside the home, but reported finding one digital scale.
Officers also failed to find a passport issued to Onyema, and said that he had “snuck back into the country across a natural border” after being deported in 2018 following charges related to cocaine.
Officers had no information on Onyema traveling in and out of the country, said the report.
Onyema was taken to Chalong Police Station and charged with entering the Kingdom without permission, the report confirmed.
Of note, the report included several references to Onyema as a “dark-skinned man”, “the dark-skinned suspect” and a person of colour.
The official report also noted that “police have warned people of Phuket that people of color have the behaviour of selling cocaine and deceive others by using a Facebook profile as a handsome man to fool a woman or as a beautiful woman to deceive men” in what are called “romance scams”.
“If you see people of colour anywhere, you can report [them] to any police station or the Tourist Police to eliminate this type of gangster from Phuket,” the official report concluded.
