BI nabbed 128 foreign fugitives in 2023

Metro Manila (CNN Philippines, January 14) — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Sunday said it arrested 128 foreign fugitives in 2023.

Among the offenses they committed are economic crimes, investment scams, illegal gambling, money laundering, telecommunications fraud, robbery and smuggling, the agency said in a statement.

BI’s Fugitive Search Unit reported that “39 South Koreans account for the bulk of the arrested fugitives.” Authorities also nabbed 25 Chinese, 15 Vietnamese, 12 Taiwanese, 11 Americans, and 8 Japanese.

“Nearly all of the captured fugitives were already deported and are already serving time in prison in their respective countries after being convicted of the crimes they allegedly committed,” the agency added.

The BI said a notable operation was the arrest of Manpreet Singh and his cohorts in March last year. They were tagged as members of extremist group Khalistan Tiger Force in India.

The agency also cited the arrests of Risa Yamada, Fujita Kairi and Sato Shohei in January, March and April, respectively, for their affiliation with the “Luffy” syndicate.

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“All of them were already included in the immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens, hence they are perpetually barred from re-entering the country,” the BI said.

“Our country is off limits to these foreign fugitives. They are not welcome here and there will be no letup in our campaign to hunt and deport them so they could be tried for the criminal cases that were filed against them,” Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.