Seventeen South Koreans were arrested in an online gambling sting by agents of the Bureau of Immigration’s Fugitive Search Unit – along with representatives of the South Korean Embassy in Manila.
BI officials said the Koreans were arrested at One Corporate Center, a posh building at Ortigas Center in Pasig City.
Officials discovered the 17 men are all fugitives from justice and are being charged with violations of the National Sports Promotion Act and conspiring and operating an illegal gambling website (den).
Authorities said the men are now being processed by the bureau’s Legal Division and will be deported at the soonest time possible.
The list of men was provided by the the Korean Embassy liaison office who helped identify them.
The men originally arrived in the Philippines under the guise of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority visa – and had no other subsequent travel papers on them.
The online gambling dens were being operated in units #702 and #905 of One Corporate Center – bureau officials coordinated with the tower’s employees to verify the unit’s occupants before catching the suspects red-handed manning their gambling stations.
All but one suspect presented a valid passport, all others were without any type of legal support or validity to be within the country.