A criminal altered his appearance to appear more attractive and dodge the authorities. 

Convicted Thai drug trafficker Saharat Sawangjaeng, 25, underwent numerous facial surgeries to make himself look like ‘a handsome Korean man’ and evade police detection, local cops said after he was apprehended at a condo in Bangkok. 

Authorities added Sawangjaeng even went so far as to adopt a Korean-sounding name, Seong Jimin, as part of his disguise. 

The hunt for the fugitive drug trafficker lasted more than three months, by which time cops said that ‘none of his original face was left’.

Cops managed to track Sawangjaeng down by tracing the flow of ecstasy to sellers and buyers in the Thai capital.

In a video of his arrest, he is heard explaining he had wanted to move to South Korea. 

He said in the recording: ‘I want to start a new life. I am bored of Thailand.’

He added most of the drugs he bought came from the Netherlands, and claimed he does not know the identity of the other people who formed part of his trafficking operation. 

Since being detained, Sawangjaeng has been charged with illegally importing narcotics.

He has already admitted to using cryptocurrency to purchase MDMA over the dark web, police said.

The defendant was arrested on at least three occasions prior to his recent apprehension. 

On one of those occasions he was detained for assault, and the police recovered roughly 300 ecstasy tablets and more than 2kg of liquid narcotics from his possession. 

Local press quoted Thai Police major-general Theeradej Thammasutee describing Sawangjaeng as ‘one of the main causes of Bangkok’s MDMA epidemic’.

The head cop added: ‘He is a drug lord importing MDMA from Europe at just 25 years old. We believe there are more suspects in foreign countries.

‘We will continue our investigation.’ 

It’s not the only time Thailand’s booming amphetamine trade has made headlines of late.

Authorities in the Tha Muang district of Kanchanaburi, central Thailand, said they’d recovered more than two million pills from the scene of a head-on collision that killed four and injured one last Wednesday.

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