Notorious Melbourne bikie Amad "Jay" Malkoun, who was present at the abduction of international drug trafficker Wayne Rodney Schneider in Thailand, is believed to have fled to Dubai. 
Malkoun had been questioned as witness by Thai police in relation to Schneider's abduction and murder last week.
But a source close to Malkoun denied he had left the country without permission, claiming Thai police said Malkoun was "free to go". 
Malkoun, himself a convicted drug trafficker, has been living in Dubai with his family since resigning as the president of the Comanchero bikie gang in 2013.
It is understood that Malkoun is a close associate of a member of the Gulf state's royal family who has allowed him to stay in the United Arab Emirates despite his extensive criminal history and organised crime connections.
The relationship is apparently based on a mutual interest in horses, with the Dubai royal giving Malkoun an Arabian stallion as a gift.
Malkoun has been claiming he slept through Schneider's abduction despite reports of bullet casings being found nearby and the presence of a large pool of blood in the villa near the seaside tourist city of Pattaya.
Witnesses and Thai police say Schneider was bashed and kidnapped by five armed assailants last Monday as part of an alleged extortion attempt. The body of the former NSW Hells Angels member was discovered the next day in a shallow roadside grave.
Sources told The Sunday Age that Schneider was a well-known drug trafficker who ran extensive criminal network in Europe and Asia worth tens of millions of dollars. He has been the subject of at least one previous extortion attempt in Thailand.
Malkoun was able to leave the country despite being a potential witness. He was interviewed by Thai police in the hours after Schneider was kidnapped last Monday.
It is unknown how Malkoun managed to leave Thailand where police have put members of outlaw motorcycle gangs on a watch list. 
Police have made a series of breakthroughs in Schneider's murder investigation after a GPS tracker fitted to a hired pick-up truck led police to the grave site. 
A prime Australian suspect, Antonio Bagnato, has been arrested after fleeing to Cambodia and faces extradition to Thailand on kidnapping and murder charges. If found guilty he could face a death sentence. 
Bagnato, 26, is a former Sydney bikie and business partner of Schneider. 
Thai police say they have established the identities of the five men involved in the murder.