Transcript of the above video: 

As the title of this video suggests, we are discussing extradition from Thailand. The thumbnail is actually from Ghostbusters 1, the masterpiece Ghostbusters 1, with Bill Murray playing the great Peter Venkman, and he asked this woman who has been witness to a paranormal event whether or not there is any history of mental illness in her family. And she says, “well my uncle thought he was Saint Jerome”, and Venkman sort of says, "well I’d call that a big yes." And as you can surmise from the title and the thumbnail yeah, it is pretty darn possible to be extradited from Thailand back over to the USA. 

Very quickly while I have a minute here, I think it's worth going ahead and plugging. My better half and I set up a restaurant here in downtown Bangkok. We are now going to periodically be doing sort of movie events and as you know, I have sort of a predilection for films, especially movies from the '80s, '90s, early 2000s. I'm pretty much, I was born in '82, but I like to thank of myself I guess as Gen X, or sort of the last Gen X and those are the type of movies we like to watch. But again Pancake Palace is the restaurant. We are in downtown Bangkok. If you are interested in some American Diner style food, please come by. We also have Thai food as well; I think that's important to point out. We also have a Thai menu for Thais who want to eat, and I do understand that many Thais have their own breakfast tastes when it comes to their pallet, so please feel free to come on by as well if you'd like some Thai food. We also have again, American Diner style food, hamburgers, cheeseburgers, chilli bowls, buffalo wings: so it's not just a breakfast place even though the name would imply, Pancake Palace is a breakfast place it is in fact anytime, and we'd love to see you down there. Links are in the description below, we'd love to see you. 

By the way, for folks who are subscribers to our paid news service, I am making content explaining what we are going to be doing moving forward. again the paid news service took you up through the end of 2025. I do have the entire mailing list. I will be putting out a message to all you folks, and we are going to be rolling all of this into bwh.club. It is taking me a little longer than I would have liked, but so it goes. So just letting you know on that one and if anybody's interested in bwh.club or if you're from the paid news service sort of legacy members please feel free to email us, [email protected]. Let's jump in here. 

I don't often make videos on extradition frankly. I should do another tranche if you will of videos regarding sort of comparative law between American and Thailand, but extradition - for those who are unaware – it is when you are being removed from one jurisdiction over to another jurisdiction in order to be tried for a crime. I thought of making this video after reading a recent article from the Bangkok Post, bangkokpost.com, the article is titled: Thai man wanted for 1996 murder extradited to US. Quoting directly: "A Bangkok-born man caught in Thailand after nearly 30 years on the run" - and I think it's important to point out, as they note later in the article he has pled "not guilty", so to say he has been "on the run" until he is proven guilty, I think it's somewhat of a misnomer to presume the person is guilty. That said, quoting further: "on the run has been extradited to the United States to face a murder charge in California, according to US Justice Officials. Voravit Mektrakarn, 58, was wanted in connection with the death of one of his employees at the noodle business he owned in Ontario, California in 1996. Luis Garcia was last seen on November 23, 1996, when he was believed to have met Mr. Voravit to receive a final payment under an undisclosed financial agreement. He was never seen again. The case lay dormant until 2004, when after further investigation, a Judge ruled that there was overwhelming circumstantial evidence to show that Garcia had been murdered by his employer. Mr. Voravit fled the United States shortly after the crime and lived under a fake identity at various places in Myanmar and Cambodia for nearly 30 years, according to authorities. In April 2024 he was apprehended under an alias and in disguise by Thai Police in Bangkok at the request of the United States. The Department of Justice and the US Embassy in Bangkok subsequently worked with Thai authorities to secure his extradition. Mr. Voravit was extradited to the United States and escorted to San Bernardino by the US Marshals Service on Jan 16 this year. On January 22, Mr. Voravit was arraigned on a charge of murder and pleaded not guilty. Bail was denied and he was remanded into custody. A pre-preliminary hearing is scheduled for February 17, at the Rancho Cucamonga Superior Courthouse." I urge those who are watching this video, go check out that article; there's more information in there. 

What I really wanted to talk about in this video is that yes if you are a foreign national and there are foreign warrants - especially for serious crimes like murder out for you - yeah, extradition from Thailand is not difficult. The reason for this video though is to show that even Thai nationals could be subject to expedition under certain circumstances. Again the Extradition Treaty, once you are dealing with a national of one of the parties to the Treaty, it really changes the complexion of how extradition works. But the point of this video is to understand yeah, for serious crimes, clearly the Justice Department is not messing around. They spent a lot of time and energy getting this moved through. There is a great line in the series The Sopranos where Tony Soprano is talking to his defense lawyer and his defense lawyer says, "hey, the Feds are a business, Anthony. They've invested a lot of time and energy into you, and they want to see some kind of return on investment." That's sort of the way to think about it. These major crime situations where they invest a great deal of time and energy into apprehending an individual, they follow through, is basically the point I am trying to make with this video. So again, there are procedurally maybe ways of challenging extradition, again depending on the underlying facts in the given case. For those who find themselves in problems with the law here in Thailand, particularly in a criminal capacity, it might not be a terrible idea to contact a legal professional, gain some insight and guidance into how best to proceed.