The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said its operatives arrested a total of 28 foreign fugitives from justice during the first semester of the year.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, the BI’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) reported that despite the pandemic, they remained active in locating and apprehending alien fugitives hiding in the country.
It was learned that the number of alien fugitives arrested from January to June was only slightly lower than the 32 wanted foreigners who were apprehended in the same period last year when the pandemic broke out.
“While admittedly we had much difficulty as our field operatives face exposure to virus, our officers remain steadfast in their duty to cleanse the country of these unwanted aliens,” Morente said.
BI FSU Chief Rendel Sy said most of the foreigners arrested were already deported and are now serving sentences for their crimes, adding that the aliens were also placed in the BI blacklist and banned from re-entering the country.
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BI nabbed 28 alien fugitives during first half of 2021
Records showed that 19 South Koreans, who were also wanted for fraud and illegal gambling, topped the list of the arrested fugitives. The rest were four Americans, a Japanese, a French, an Italian, a Polish, and a Bahraini national.
Among the high profile fugitives who were captured was Frenchman Julien Barbier, who is wanted for narcotics trafficking; American John Dalton Daclan, who is wanted for a string of cases such as robbery, burglary, fraud, and battery; and Italian Antonello Ivaldi, a sex offender and alleged pedophile.
Records showed that it was in 2019 that the BI effected the biggest number of arrests of fugitives or a total of 425 aliens captured, many of whom were Chinese nationals involved in illegal online gaming and telecom fraud operations.
Chinese nationals, totaling 116 who were mostly wanted for telecom fraud and cyber crimes, also topped the list of the 260 alien fugitives who were arrested in 2018.
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