Police in Phuket, a tourist destination, announced today (May 29) that they have charged a Canadian man they called a mercenary with killing a Canadian-Indian gangster.
After Jimi “Slice” Sandhu, who earned his moniker from a recognizable scar on his face, was fatally shot in February 2022, police opened an inquiry. He was an Indian-Canadian who had been expelled, but he was still traveling on a Canadian passport as Mr. Mandeep Singh.
Sandhu belonged to the United Nations gang, which was engaged in a brutal conflict with the Wolfpack Alliance at the time of his passing. Both gangs’ members engaged in significant drug trafficking.
Matthew Leandre Ovide Dupre, a Canadian, was the subject of a red notice from Interpol in relation to the murder last year.
Late on Sunday, the 38-year-old was extradited from Canada and sent back to Thailand.
He is a skilled mercenary and a significant suspect. National Police Chief Pol. Gen. Damrongsak Kittiprapas informed reporters that the assassin flew in to complete his mission without even bringing a weapon.
According to a police statement, Dupre was charged with premeditated murder, unlawful gun possession, and discharging a pistol.
Dupre, according to officials, is not guilty of any accusations.
Dupre was a former military and mercenary who has worked in numerous nations, including Afghanistan, according to Pol. Gen. Damrongsak.
According to Pol. Gen. Damrongsak, he took a special Thai Air Force flight to travel directly from Canada to Bangkok.
No commercial planes or nations permitted the plane to refuel because they were worried about hostage-taking, he said. “It is a difficult case.”
Police will keep looking into who provided the weapon.
A mutual assistance agreement covering extradition in criminal cases exists between Canada and Thailand.
Intranee Sumawong, a Thai state prosecutor, claimed that a new extradition measure has allayed Canadian worries over Thailand’s use of the death sentence.
After arriving in the country on a private plane from Malaysia a few days earlier, Sandhu was shot on February 4, 2022.
CCTV footage was recovered by the police that showed two persons shooting Sandhu after leaping out of bushes and running away into the night.
According to the 2022 Interpol notice, Sandhu’s automobile had a GPS tracker fastened to it prior to the attack.
Sandhu, who was expelled from Canada in 2016 for a number of criminal offenses, reemerged when he was apprehended in India in 2018 in connection with a ketamine plant.
According to Canadian media, a second guy, Gene Karl Lahrkamp, who was also wanted in connection with the crime, perished in a microplane crash in 2022.
Prior to his transportation from a detention cell to Bangkok Remand Prison, Dupre was strongly guarded by Hanuman SWAT (special weapons and tactics) team and Crime Suppression police.
