Interpol issues notice for arrest of Red Bull heir accused in Thai cop’s death
The highest-level alert is a request to police around the world “to locate and provisionally arrest” Vorayuth Yoovidhya, the 38-year-old grandson of the energy drink’s co-founder, Chaleo Yoovidhya, officials said.
“We have to do whatever it takes to … ultimately bring him back to the country because it is a serious crime,” National Police deputy spokesman Colonel Kissana Phathanacharoen told Agence France-Presse.
The notice, issued last Wednesday, marks a fresh push in a case that sparked calls for a Red Bull boycott amid accusations that Thailand’s second-richest family used its $20.2 billion fortune to get immunity from justice.
Yoovidhya — widely known as “Boss” — is accused of killing the motorbike officer in an early hours’ crash in Bangkok in September 2012.
He had dragged the officer’s body at a high speed before fleeing the scene in his Ferrari, and tests later showed cocaine in his system, according to officials.
The jet-setting scion missed eight court summonses — then fled the Asian nation on a private jet when an arrest summons was issued in 2017.
After charges against him were deemed expired and dropped in July, a probe conducted by Premier Prayut Chan-O-Cha’s office concluded the entire investigation had been “compromised,” AFP said.
National outrage, including calls for a boycott of his family’s energy drinks, led to further charges against him in August, with a Thai court approving an arrest warrant for reckless driving causing death and a new charge of drug use.
Phathanacharoen said it requested the “red notice” to alert Interpol’s 194 member nations and hopefully establish his whereabouts “so that he can be formally extradited back to us for further legal action.”
With Post Wires
