Li Jianlu, 37, wanted by Chinese authorities under an Interpol red notice, was arrested at a house in Pattaya, Chonburi province, on Sept. 15. Immigration Bureau commissioner Pol. Lt. Gen. Noppasilp Poonsawat announced the case on Oct. 21, The Nation reported.

Officers searching the house also found Wang Yourui, 33, a Chinese national allowed to stay in Thailand on the grounds that she was supporting a Thai-national child, and a 2-year-old girl registered as Thai.

The girl's birth certificate named a 22-year-old Thai man as her father. DNA tests arranged by Chonburi immigration investigators found no biological link between them but confirmed Li as her biological father. Wang is the girl's mother.

Chonburi immigration police have filed a complaint against Wang with Pattaya City police over the suspected use of documents arising from an offense under the Criminal Code. Her immigration status is also under review.

Police said evidence on the girl's registration would be forwarded to the Pattaya City registration office. The DNA results alone do not establish that her Thai nationality was obtained unlawfully, and officials must examine the documents before her status can change, the newspaper said.

Investigators are also looking into whether the case is part of a wider network of people paid to register as fathers so that children can obtain nationality or immigration benefits.

A little girl holds an adult’s hand. Illustration photo by Unsplash

Prosecutors in Tianjin's Hebei District approved a warrant for Li's arrest on April 30, 2024, for allegedly operating a casino, an offense punishable by up to 10 years in prison under China's Criminal Law, Thai Rath reported.

Li is accused of handling agents and finances for a network that drew more than 1,000 Chinese gamblers to overseas betting websites through more than 300 agents between December 2021 and August 2022, immigration police said.

The network's turnover exceeded 300 million yuan (US$45 million), and Li allegedly earned about 3 million yuan.

After the arrest, immigration police revoked his permission to stay in Thailand and held him for handover to Chinese authorities, the newspaper said.

Thailand ordered stricter birth registration checks nationwide in July. Investigations had uncovered schemes in numerous provinces that enabled hundreds of Chinese children to obtain Thai nationality with fraudulent documents, the Bangkok Post reported.

In one case announced on July 9, police alleged that 164 Chinese children had obtained Thai nationality over five years by having Thai men named as their fathers, through a private hospital and a district office in Bangkok's Thonburi area, Khaosod English reported.

On Aug. 19, the outlet reported that immigration police had widened a probe into an alleged "ghost father" network, in which a 53-year-old Thai man was listed as the father of six children, three of them born to Chinese mothers and allegedly fathered by Chinese men.