MH370 tickets bought in Pattaya (updated Wednesday)

Wed. Update: The two Iranians indentified as boarding the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 with stolen passports were probably not terrorists but they were very likely customers of a forged passport ring operating here in Thailand.

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Wednesday updates

The stolen passports used on Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 were unlikely connected to the aircraft's disappearance, but they do appear to be connected with a ring of criminals. Here is the latest on the case as of this morning.

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Iranians tied to passport ring

POST REPORTERS

Thai authorities have identified what they believe is a link between international crime syndicates and an Iranian man who used stolen passports to order two tickets on the ill-fated Malaysian Airlines flight MH370.

Immigration Bureau deputy chief Preecha Thimamontri yesterday said investigators believe the man, who he identified only as "Ali", ran a gang which provided forged passports to international human trafficking groups.

Muang Pattaya police superintendent Pol Col Supachai Puikaewkam said "Ali" was believed to be Alireza Kolmoham, 39.

Pol Maj Gen Preecha said the gang had purchased stolen passports and sold them to people with similar facial profiles to those featured in the travel documents.

Meanwhile, Phuket Immigration Office chief Sanchai Chokkhayaikij said he questioned the original owner of one of the stolen passports, Italian national Luigi Maraldi, again yesterday about his claims that he had lost his passport in Phuket after learning about a statement from an owner of a motorcycle rental shop in relation to an Italian man whose passport went missing last July.

The owner said a foreign man, claiming to be a customer, asked to borrow a passport from the shop so he could withdraw money from a bank. He apparently left a Russian passport, allegedly that of his girlfriend, as a guarantee. The man took the one issued to the Italian man and he has not been seen since.

Pol Col Sanchai said after questioning that he had not found anything suspicious in the Italian man's claims.

Immigration Bureau chief Pharnu Kerdlarpphon said the same investigation had found that an Iranian man who called himself "Azem" paid 51,000 baht for the two tickets at Grand Horizon in South Pattaya.

Pol Lt Gen Pharnu said Mr Azem was married to a Thai woman in Pattaya and was a friend of Mr Ali.

After the payment was made, Mr Ali repaid the money to a bank account of Mr Azem's relative in Iran, he said.

Pattaya Immigration police and local police yesterday went to the house of Mr Azem in Pattaya to question him. He was identified by Pattaya police as Hashem Golestani, 51.

Pol Lt Gen Pharnu said a search of the two Iranians' immigration data revealed that Mr Ali had entered Thailand 19 times. He left the country in December and is believed to now be in Iran.

Mr Azem has been living in Thailand for 17 years under a tourist visa. He last entered Thailand via a Cambodian border checkpoint last July.

Tuesday stories

15:50

Malaysian police have just revealed photos of the two passengers who boarded flight MH370 with stolen passports.

One was 19-year-old Pouria Nour Mohammad Mehrdad, an Iranian, who travelled on the stolen Austrian passport. The second man, travelling on an Italian passport, was identified as Delavar Syed Mohammad Reza, aged 30, and also an Iranian.

It is not believed that either was connected to a terrorism plot. Malaysian police said it was likely the 19-year-old was trying to emigrate to Europe, citing a telephone conversation with his mother.

Fake passport holders bought tickets through Pattaya agents

Flights on doomed jet booked online in Iran

Anucha Charoenpo and
Manop Thip-osod

Thai authorities have discovered that the tickets of two people who travelled on Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 using the stolen passports of an Italian and an Austrian were bought together from two travel agencies in Pattaya.

According to information obtained by the Bangkok Post, the tickets were reserved electronically from Iran.

The tickets were bought from China Southern Airlines, as they operate a code-sharing service with Malaysian Airlines. They were paid for in Thai baht. The ticket numbers are contiguous, indicating they were issued together.

The two passports in question belong to Italian national Luigi Maraldi and Austrian Christian Kozel. Both men are alive and were not on board flight MH370 when it disappeared en route to Beijing.

Pol Lt Col Ratchtapong Tiasut, Chon Buri Immigration Office’s deputy superintendent in charge of investigations, confirmed his team of investigators discovered that the two agencies – Grand Horizon in South Pattaya and Six Stars Travel at Central Plaza Pattaya – received an email order for the booking and purchase of the two tickets on Thursday.

Pattaya police on Monday travelled to the tour agency in South Pattaya and sought its cooperation in collecting documents to help with their investigations.

Pol Lt Col Ratchtapong said the agency in South Pattaya had received the order initially and later asked its partner agency at Central Plaza Pattaya to obtain the tickets.

After Six Stars Travel contacted China Southern Airlines in Bangkok, tickets were issued for the two passengers on the same day.

“We have yet to find who booked and bought the tickets for these two people. It may have been themselves or their friends in Thailand,’’ Pol Lt Col Ratchtapong said.

“As soon as we have more information we will be able to piece the story together and at least know how many people were involved and their identities.’’

The two flights booked with China Southern Airlines had their point of origin in Kuala Lumpur. They were scheduled to fly to Beijing and then onward to Amsterdam. The ticket booked with the Italian passport was to fly onward to Copenhagen and that booked with the Austrian passport continued on to Frankfurt.

The Bangkok Post managed to contact an officer at one of the travel agencies involved in the case.

The officer, who declined to disclose his name, admitted his company had received an email order to book the two flights from an Iranian man who called himself ‘’Ali’’.

The officer said he knew Mr Ali personally, from Mr Ali’s previous trips to Pattaya where he runs a business. Mr Ali had often asked his company to book flight tickets for him and his friends while staying in Pattaya.

He said Mr Ali had sent the order to his company from Iran.

He said in Mr Ali’s first email, he asked the company to book tickets on Etihad Airways or Qatar Airways, flying to Copenhagen and Frankfurt.

However, the two tickets were so expensive that Mr Ali decided to buy the tickets from China Southern Airlines for 25,500 baht each, he said.

The tour officer said Mr Ali asked his friend in Thailand to pay for the tickets in Thai baht.

He said he had already given an account of how his company had sold the tickets to the US Federal Bureau of Investigation.

‘’It’s hard for me to say at this moment whether Mr Ali and his friends who paid for the tickets are involved in a suspected terror attack on the Malaysian plane or not because he is just a foreign customer of my company,’’ he said.

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