THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced that it has arrested two South Koreans wanted for telecom fraud and a Chinese national charged with economic crimes in their respective countries.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the South Koreans were identified as Kim Changhan, 25, and Kim Junhee, 38, who were arrested last Thursday and Friday respectively, by operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU) in separate operations conducted in Makati City and Porac, Pampanga.
Morente also identified the arrested Chinese woman as a certain Zhang Yujie, 51, who was also apprehended by BI-FSU operatives in Mandaluyong City last Friday.
The BI chief said that the two South Koreans already have summary deportation orders issued against them in 2019 and 2020 for being undesirable aliens.
According to BI-FSU chief Rendel Ryan Sy, the deportation order against Kim Changan was in relation to an arrest warrant issued by the Seoul Central District Court in October 2020 while Kim Junhee faces a warrant issued by Seoul Nambu District Court in July 2019.
They were also subjects of red notices issued by the Interpol after the warrants for their arrest were issued by the said courts, Sy added.
Information obtained from the Interpol’s national central bureau (NCB) in Manila revealed that Kim Changan is allegedly the leader of a telecom fraud syndicate based in Sandong-sung China which engaged in voice phishing to defraud its victims of more than 63 million won or nearly US$53 million.
The NCB further bared that Kim Junhee was also tagged as a member of a telecom fraud syndicate based in Tianjin, China that defrauded its victims of over 110 million won or about US$92 million.
As for Zhang, Chinese authorities reportedly sought her deportation due to an arrest warrant that was issued against her in China for alleged involvement economic crime activities.
All three alien fugitives will be held at the BI’s facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending the implementation of their deportation. (Jantzen Tan)
