(Eagle News) — The Bureau of Immigration said it arrested 55 foreign fugitives in the country in 2020.
In a statement, immigration bureau chief Jaime Morente said the 55 was far lower than the 420 nabbed by Fugitive Search Unit operatives in 2019.
“Despite the challenges that the pandemic has brought to us, we still managed to apprehend high profile fugitives wanted for serious offenses by authorities in their home countries,” he said.
The BI-FSU said that 26 South Koreans topped the list of those arrested, followed by 10 Japanese nationals, nine Americans, and six Chinese nationals.
Also arrested were a Briton, a Russian, a Czech, and a Saudi national.
“Fraud and economic crimes topped the crimes committed by these fugitives, followed by telecom fraud, cybercrime fraud, and sexual offenses,” Bobby Raquepo, chief of the FSU, said.
The bureau said among the high-profile fugitives arrested were eight Japanese nationals who were caught in the act of engaging in cyberfraud and voice phishing operations.
They were rounded up in February during a raid of their room at a Laguna resort.
BI-FSU operatives also arrested in Manila three Chinese nationals tagged as members of an organized crime syndicate that forged the seal of a hospital in China and used it to defraud their victims of 10 million RMB or more than US$1.5 million, the bureau said.
