The Two hitmen in the Jimmy Sandhu murder case in Phuket have been living in fear in Canada since being exposed by the Royal Thai Police on February 12th last after an Interpol Red Notice was sought for the pair following the cold-blooded killing on February 4th last. One has already been arrested in Alberta on February 20th but the evidence collected by police in Thailand has led to Canadian police opening their own conspiracy to murder probe which could see those who paid for the hit and the two gunmen face justice on Canadian soil.
Police agencies in Canada are now reported to be pursuing their own investigation into the murder of gangland figure Jimmy Sandhu in Phuket on February 4th last. It comes as Thai authorities confirmed, this week, that they are actively pursuing the extradition of the two suspected killers including 36-year-old ex-armed forces member Matthew Dupre who was arrested in Edmonton, Alberta on February 20th last. It has emerged that both suspects in the case are living in fear and reported to be ‘suicidal’ after incurring the wrath of their underworld clients for their failure to cover their tracks after the Royal Thai Police identified them sparking a wider probe into a conspiracy on Canadian soil to commit murder. The men are thought to have severely underestimated the response from the Royal Thai Police to the murder which managed to have arrests warrants issued within a week, members of the conspiracy in Thailand arrested in Phuket and valuable DNA evidence obtained linking the pair to the hit.
Reports from Canada in the last week suggest that the two hired hitmen who assassinated the Indian underworld figure Jimmy Sandhu on February 4th in Rawai Beach in Phuket, have been living in fear since their names were released to the media by the Royal Thai Police on February 12th last after a highly successful investigation led by National Police Commissioner General Suwat Jangyodsuk.
Canadian police have confirmed the arrest of one of the suspects sought by the Royal Thai Police in connection with the murder of gangland figure Jimmy Sandhu on February 4th last at a luxury villa near Rawai Beach in Phuket.
Phuket tourist murder on Friday night was an international gangland hit on a known drug player
26-year-old Matthew Dupre was arrested by Canadian police in Edmonton Alberta on Sunday, February 20th last.
Hitman suspect Dupre being held by the Alberta Court under conditions of secrecy and enhanced security
It is understood that Mr Dupre is being held under tight security and a veil of secrecy by the Alberta Court while a request for his extradition to Thailand is expected to be brought before the courts.
However, this request is likely to be fought tooth and nail and faces major legal hurdles due to a Canadian court order in 2001 that prohibits Canadian authorities from handing over any Canadian citizen or resident to a jurisdiction where the death penalty is still in force.
Extradition request from Thailand faces a hurdle
The Canadian Supreme Court judgment in the 2001 case United States vs Burns means that no extradition can go ahead unless a binding commitment is received confirming that the death penalty will not be applied.
The court must also satisfy itself as to the efficacy and nature of such an undertaking which is bound to be assiduously opposed by legal representatives of the accused men.
There is also the emerging possibility that the case may be superseded by an investigation now underway by Canadian police into the conspiracy to murder Mr Sandhu which may have taken place on Canadian soil.
Two killers grossly underestimated the powers and ability of the Royal Thai Police who blew the case wide open in days with several notable successes
It is widely thought that the two hired killers grossly underestimated the efficiency and effectiveness of the Thai police when they took on the contract in Canada to take out the international drug dealer linked with a bloody gangland feud.
Death penalty may be a problem as two hitmen in Sandhu case are named by police seeking arrests of the pair
Now, it is understood that both men, who each served with the Canadian armed forces, rising to the rank of corporal, had immediately gone to ground on their return as they feared for their lives as police in Canada began to investigate a murder conspiracy case linked to the assassination of Mr Sandhu.
Police in British Columbia last week still searching for the second hitman in a rural, mountainous area
Last week, Canadian police in British Columbia confirmed that they are seeking to execute a warrant against the other suspected hitman Gene Karl Lahrkamp.
Officers with the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), a combined police agency unit in the province targeting organised crime, carried out searches in a rural area of the province where Mr Lahrkamp is believed to have operated a dog breeding company called Mountain Mal’s.
Sergeant Brenda Winpenny, in a press statement, confirmed that the search operation was concerned with an ‘ongoing investigation’ which appears to indicate that Canadian authorities may be preparing to press charges of their own against the two hitmen as part of a wider conspiracy.
This has been confirmed by security sources in Canada who understand that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and other police task forces are investigating a crime committed on Canadian soil which led to the murder of Mr Sandhu in Phuket.
Men believed to have been paid a large sum to carry out the murder by gangland figures who are not happy
It is reported that the two men were paid a substantial amount of money but were deeply shocked and appalled when the Thai police unearthed and then publicised their identities together with having a Red Interpol notice issued for their arrest just one week after the murder.
One source has suggested that the underworld figures who paid for the hit view it as a botched operation because of the trail police are now openly pursuing.
Successful investigation by the Royal Thai Police in Phuket saw the murder weapons retrieved from shallow water on Rawai Beach with metal detectors
The successful investigation by the Royal Thai Police saw DNA evidence retrieved from clothes discarded by the two killers in a Phuket dumpster as they made their way from the cold-blooded killing of Mr Sandhu on February 4th and in the early hours of February 5th last.
It also includes evidence retrieved from two sophisticated firearms, a CZ 9mm semi-automatic pistol and a Walther 9mm fully automatic, which police successfully retrieved from shallow waters using metal detectors near Rawai Beach in front of a derelict building on the shore.
It is reported that the Royal Thai Police have also followed up on the registered owners of these two weapons, reported as a retired police officer and military officer in northern Thailand.
It is also known that police officers investigating the murder have already arrested several other individuals who acted as accomplices to the plot to kill Mr Sandhu in Phuket including at least one other foreigner, a Russian man who planted a GPS tracking device on the victim’s car in the days before the murder.
Suspects described by Canadian police as ‘suicidal’
Both men were described by Canadian police before the arrest of Mr Dupre on February 20th as ‘armed, dangerous, escape risk, suicidal, violent’ given their current circumstances.
Matthew Dupre, who flew from Suvarnabhumi Airport to Amsterdam on February 6th last, had served with the Canadian armed forces from 2005 to 2013 while the other suspected hitman, Gene Karl Lahrkamp, had served from 2012 to 2018.
On February 6th, Mr Lahrkamp flew to Frankfurt in Europe as both killers made their way home to Canada where they immediately found themselves in fear of being hunted down not only by Canadian police agencies but also by figures in the criminal underworld that are believed to have hired the pair to carry out the murder.
Sandhu stabbed a rival gang leader to death in 2014
It is understood that the background to the hit on Mr Sandhu is his suspected involvement in the murder of Red Scorpion gangland boss, 32-year-old Matt Campbell, at the Abbotsford Auto Mall in Abbotsford near Vancouver on January 2nd 2014.
Mr Sandhu, then an active member of the rival UN gang which was fighting an all-out turf war with the Red Scorpions, had encountered Mr Campbell at the location by accident.
The 32-year-old later rushed into a local car rental business after receiving a stab wound to his neck which proved fatal.
Sandhu was charged with second-degree murder for his part in the incident but, in February 2015, the charge against him was stayed by Crown Prosecutors and he was deported from Canada to India, the year later.
Thailand’s Attorney General’s Office pursuing the extradition of Mr Dupre to Thailand to face justice
In Thailand this week, Mr Prayuth Petchkhun of the Office of the Attorney General (OAG) confirmed the arrest of Matthew Dupre on February 20th by the Canadian police and that Thailand would be seeking his extradition to face justice in the kingdom.
The charges on which the arrest warrants for the Canadian pair were issued in Phuket on February 11th include illegal firearms use and conspiracy to commit murder.
It has now emerged that Canadian police in British Columbia and the Combined Forces Special Enforcement Unit (CFSEU), while actively searching for Mr Dupre’s accomplice Gene Karl Lahrkamp, are also investigating the murder of Mr Sandhu as it is firmly believed that the hitmen were hired and paid in Canada to murder as part of an ongoing gangland feud.
Sandhu maintained his gangland links with Canada after his deportation to his native India in 2016 and lived between Dubai and Southeast Asia since 2018
Police sources have confirmed that Mr Sandhu retained his underworld and drug dealing ties with Canada after his deportation to India in 2016 and so too after he later fled India in 2018.
The gangster skipped bail from his native country when Indian law enforcement officers with India’s Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) smashed a ketamine drug network and raided a factory where $5 million worth of illegal narcotics were seized.
Mr Sandhu was reported to have been living a life of affluence travelling between Dubai and Southeast Asia.
He entered Thailand as a tourist in late December 2021. After police responded to his murder on February 4th last, they found a range of forged identification documents prepared for the gangland figure with assorted identities linked with Canada, India and Vietnam.
One of these was a Visa debit card in the name of Amarjit Singh Sindu issued by VietcomBank in Vietnam, a commercial bank with a market capitalisation of $15.5 billion and which has subsidiaries in Southeast Asia as well as a representative office in Singapore.
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Further reading:
Phuket tourist murder on Friday night was an international gangland hit on a known drug player
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‘Lupus Taiwan’ drug fiend and K Nompong mixer arrested by police squad including the Police Chief
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Drug police put retraction behind them to smash billion baht Myanmar drug operation in Bangkok raid
Danish man arrested, facing charges after Pattaya drug-dealing sting at local hospital coffee shop
Nigerian drug dealer betrayed in Phuket as local police receive tip-off that led them to his arrest
Gamblers and hosts at illegal gambling dens are being jailed as massive crackdown proceeds apace
Top Thai and US drug suppression officials warn of the use of cryptocurrencies in the drug trade
Drug police put retraction behind them to smash billion baht Myanmar drug operation in Bangkok raid
Use of cocaine and cannabis is still highly illegal in Thailand with very serious legal consequences
One of the biggest drug dealers in the South flees home as Thai police and army move against him
Thai drug dealers go high tech with online social media accounts the key mode of distribution
Italian living with Thai wife on Koh Phangan arrested for dealing after drugs found in the post
Pattaya police arrest 6 people in major drugs raid on a house linked to Aussie crime gang network
