There is often active surveillance even to the extent of monitoring closed-circuit televison cameras in spots frequented by foreigners.
Thai police can be remarkably efficient if they want to be, it is pointed out.
In 2000, they found and arrested Jemaah Islamiah leader Riduan Isamuddin, better known as Hambali, in Ayutthaya.
In February this year, they arrested 'Pony-tail Bandit' Morgan Michelle Hoke, wanted for bank robberies in the US, soon after receiving a tip-off from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Last year, the paedophile Christopher Neil, a Canadian schoolteacher, was found and arrested within three weeks of the launch of a manhunt for him.
'They can certainly move fast when they want to, or need to,' one analyst told The Straits Times.
But an echo of international politics can also be detected when the fish is a big one.
In the Viktor Bout case, a London-based analyst familiar with conflict issues told The Straits Times that Bout's support for the left-wing FARC - which is fighting the US-backed Colombian President Alvaro Uribe - may have been a factor.
'In between, (Bout) was aiding the war on terror, so he was off some lists of bad people,' the analyst said.
'But according to some reports,, when Bout began aiding the FARC, the pact between him and the US was off.'
NIRMAL GHOSH