A SECTION OF THE ISLAND’S FOREIGN CRIMINAL FRATERNITY IS ALARMED
Fugitive British drugs and organized crime figure Walter ‘Whacky’ Douglas’ was behind bars in Britain last night after Thai police swooped on his holiday island lair.
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| (Whacky with a friend in ‘Dreamers’) |
Douglas, known as ‘The Tartan Pimpernel’ and once described as one of Britain’s ten wealthiest drugs traffickers, disappeared in the late nineties after a career linked to narcotics.
But when he was tracked down to the island of Koh Samui last year, he said stories about him were grossly exaggerated. No charges were pending, he said.
But on Tuesday Thai Police raided his villa in Bangrak on the island’s north coast and also his nightclub called ‘Dreamers’ where he went under the name ‘Bobby Brown’.
And on Wednesday night he was flown to Bangkok and put on a London bound plane which was met on Thursday at Heathrow by officers of the National Crime Agency.
Douglas’s deportation and arrest in police custody has caused a panic among a group of British expats, known to British police, living in an enclave in Bangrak, Koh Samui, just five minutes from the airport. Others have been arrested on return to the U.K.
Although this site uncovered Douglas’ presence on the island last year we cannot claim credit for this latest action. A source close the Foreign Affairs Division from the Royal Thai Police say officers acted on information from the island. The fact that the National Crime Agency deny they were involved in the operation, apart from receiving Douglas on his return, seems to support that view.
Douglas’s ‘Dreamers’ club and restaurant which he started with a local influential Thai businessmen remains open but quiet. His Russian girlfriend is believed to be still in residence looking after his affairs.
One of ‘Whacky’s’ most famous cases was in 1994 when British Customs found 18 tons of hashish with a street value of £60 million on the freighter Britannia Gezel. He was arrested by Dutch police at his farmhouse at Abcoude, and tried with three others at Utrecht High Court where he was accused of smuggling cannabis, ecstasy and cocaine.
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| In earlier days in Amsterdam |
He was jailed for four years but apparently only served six months after, he said, he was released on appeal because investigators used illegal phone taps.
The Crown Office in Edinburgh were reported to have filed for extradition only hours after his arrest. But no proceedings took place.
Douglas, who began his working life as a milkman in Glasgow, disappeared again surfacing in Marbella under the name Terence Tomkins. He was arrested in 1998 and charged with money laundering to the value of £150 million and was imprisoned in Alhaurin de le Torre prison in Malaga. Again he was acquitted.
He surfaced again in 2006 when he was arrested after in Ibiza with a false passport. But again he appears to have avoided prosecution and it is believed this matter is being used by police to hold him.
He has variously been reported as operating in Russia, South America and South Africa, and to have hired Latvian guards to protect him from a Columbian cartel, but he has been living on Koh Samui for at least three years, commuting to Southern Spain, where he also has shares in a ‘Dreamers Clubs’ in Puerto Banus and Ibiza.
He was also one of many people interviewed in connection with the 1990 murder in Marbella of Great Train Robber Charlie Wilson. He claimed that was because he had lent a car to the son of Jack ‘the Hat’ McVitie who was at a party in Wilson’s house.
(McVitie was a drugs trafficker and occasional an enforcer for the ‘Kray Twins’, who ruled the London underworld in the 50’s and 60′. McVitie was subsequently was subsequently brutally murdered by them and his body dumped in the English Channel).
A National Crime Agency spokesman said last night:
Jack the Hat McVitie
“The Thai authorities deported Walter Douglas of their own accord and revoked his visa. He was put on a plane on Wednesday and met by officers at Heathrow on Thursday morning. He has subsequently been charged with obtaining goods by deception .
“The charge relates to fraudulently obtained genuine passport that was recovered by the Spanish National Police during raids in Ibiza in 2006.
“Douglas was remanded in custody following a hearing at Birmingham Magistrates Court today. He will next appear at Birmingham Crown Court on 21 February.and is due to appear in court in Birmingham tomorrow.”
As a former milkman myself, Whacky has disgraced our trade. If 'obtaining goods by deception' is all they've got on him, you wonder why the National Crime Agency is involved. Maybe that is just the holding charge whilst they figure out what else they can put on him.
Being taken from balmy Samui to Birmingham at this time of the year is inhuman treatment. Worse than being water-boarded. I hope he took his flannel pyjamas with him.
We know Brian Goudie/Goldie was dropping his name in the recent past. Once a snitch always a snitch. Still trying to get a better deal Bampot?
In the Thai language they have a number of simple terms for describing people like Brian.
ปากผู้หญิง- woman's mouth.
ปากตลาด- market mouth, somebody who can't help spreading stories around about others.
ปากเมีย- wife's mouth.
Poor Brian can't make a posting on his blog without threatening some form of vexatious litigation against some innocent party. He is like the หมาเห่าใบตองแห้ง or the dog who could dry banana leaves by barking.
Brian's very public name dropping probably red-lighted Whacky who was flying low on the radar until serial big mouths Brian Goudie and David Hanks showed up on Samui.
P.S- Never use the above terms towards a Thai male unless you want to die.
Is it possible? – only if Whacky refused to lend him cash. Need motive to make this allegation.
Brian is now trying to pin the blame of Whacky's deportation on Kanokrat Booth. Guess it's time to add another case to the long list you already have against him.
Yes indeed. We all know who were dropping Whacky's name like they were part of his crew. Whacky must be regretting the day he laid eyes on these guys. Ex bank teller Brian and furniture repair man David are trying to play out of their division.
I feel that Brian has become a bogeyman of sorts. This is clearly above his pay-grade and abilities to pull off. It would be nice to not ascribe any super powers to someone so clearly inept in his day to day.
In the first place, I wouldn't take the word of the NCA and that goes doubly for theirs spokesperson. Law enforcement isn't required to and rarely does tell the truth, especially as it concerns ongoing investigations.
This is just the kind of mis-information they'd like to get out there to smoke the hive. Convince the criminal element that is comfortably ensconced in the balmy island paradises around this great nation that the locals are keen to move them out. Then see who rattles and jumps a freighter bound for Caracas or wherever these guys go.
There is a reason that criminals prefer not to travel. It's high risk, removes them from their support networks (temporarily) and exposes them to the pinch. You have to identify yourself when traveling and that's not always easy for someone with a grey past. I don't think I'm spilling any state secrets here, but the promise of sweeps, round-ups, etc. have been used for decades to get criminals moving without the authorities lifting a finger.
If the NCA and other British authorities are genuinely not involved, the most logical speculation (and it would only be speculation on my part) is that K. Pimpernel had a falling out with or otherwise rubbed one of his local business partners the wrong way. Could it be the result of some blabbermouthing by Gouldie or Hanks about town, casting a shadow on his suitability as a discreet business partner? Surely.
What I seriously doubt happened is that Brian narc'd this guy out to save his own hide with the Thais. If that were the case he'd be sitting in Chaweng Police station pointing at a load of contraband they busted him with. Given his financial resources (alleged) I would bet that K. Pimpernel could have stayed safe and snug in Samui indefinitely and only was dislodged as someone or something big wanted him gone.
P.S. Thank you for the education weapon. I'm pretty interested in living so thanks.
Indeed Brian would have to have acted out of malice which of course is not,er, part of his nature. But you are right. This is case to watch. I should point out that Walter used his genuine passport when travelling which suggests he was not on any international arrest warrant.
Just to clarify my response:
I don't think it is unlikely that Brian would narc someone out to save his skin. I think he'd put his own mom in for the Lindbergh baby if he thought it would diminish his odds of being behind bars.
I just don't think in this case that he's had any influence in the course of events. This does not strike me as a situation where someone (i.e. Brian) rolled over and they came down on Mr. Douglas. Of course if Mr. Douglas or his associates don't see my logic and believe that the Royal Marine Commando Barrister Property Magnate Goldie/Gouldie were intimately involved, it's no skin off of my nose.
I am sure the wee gob-shite Bwian has the malice to put it in for 'Whaky' but I doubt he'd have the balls. He would surely realize it would come back to him in the end… But, then again..who knows.. ?
In a country where scofflaws largely rule the roost (and the police force) one wonders how exactly he managed to get himself deported. You really do have to try pretty hard. Perhaps he was actually the first expat victim of Chalerm's desire to get rid of expats who have in any way aided and abetted the Suthep Krew. I strongly doubt that his downfall was anything to do with him being viewed as a criminal – as the RTP has no great reputation for knowing a criminal when they see one. More likely they would actually perceive him as a convenient cash cow, a fellow-traveller in the realms of low-cunning or both. Or are those thoughts straying too close to a conspiracy theory to be taken seriously. They were mainly conceived in jest.But, it could actually be a lot simpler than that – a desire to be perceived in the West as a democratic government under attack that is still capable of doing the right thing & helping the West. All you have to do to secure more such deportations is buy into the Thaksin spin. Not that difficult really! A lot of UK people in the UK are so locked into their own little job, salary, mortgage and credit card world that they will pretty much believe anything the Daily Mail tells them. And such Machiavellianism is exactly what senior Thai policemen, past & present, know how to do best.
😉 Regardless, I'm sure we can all have a good laugh at such ridiculous notions.
It's about time Thailand cleans up it's act, since it's foreigners like this that give us a bad reputation, Better co-operation with international agencies would solve this problem, of denying entry into the Kingdom if your on the run, have an outstanding warrant, or indeed have been procecuted for serious crimes or associated with the criminal fraternity. It would be very easy to join all the neworks up, and it would improve Thailand's tattered reputation of attracting the wrong type.