TAIPEI (Taiwan News) – Thailand on Thursday deported a Taiwanese man on the run from a 10-year-and-six-month sentence for drug smuggling after he completed one year in jail for entering the country on a forged passport.

Huang Li-wei (黃立為) was caught with 5.86 kilograms of ketamine smuggled into Taiwan by a package delivery operator in 2021, the Liberty Times reported. The Supreme Court confirmed his sentence of 10 years and six months last year, but he disappeared before the start of his prison term.

The Taipei District Prosecutors Office issued an arrest warrant for Huang in August 2024, with the Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau listing him as an international fugitive a month later. Contacts with Thai law enforcement led to the discovery that Huang had entered Thailand in May 2024 with a forged passport.

He was arrested by police and sentenced to one year in prison for forgery. At the end of his jail term on May 31, he was moved to a detention center for foreigners to await deportation.

Agents from Taiwan’s Ministry of Justice Investigation Bureau, National Immigration Agency, and Criminal Investigation Bureau accompanied Huang on his flight from Bangkok to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport on Thursday. After his arrival, he will face questioning by Taipei prosecutors, the report said.