Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested a Chinese national wanted by the Interpol and authorities in Beijing for illegally operating online gaming sites in the Internet.
The BI identified the passenger as 34-year-old Anrui Wang, who was intercepted last April 19 at the immigration departure area of the NAIA terminal 1 before he could board a Philippine Airlines flight to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
Wang was denied departure after the BI officer who processed him saw that his name prompted a positive hit in the bureau’s derogatory alert system indicating that the passenger is subject of an Interpol red notice for being a fugitive from justice.
After confirming that Wang and the person who is subject of the Interpol red notice are one the same, the passenger was arrested by the BI supervisors on duty and turned over to personnel of the bureau’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU).
According to BI-Interpol unit acting chief Peter de Guzman, the Interpol published its red notice on Wang on February 2022, barely two months after a warrant for his arrest was issued by the public security bureau in Feixi County in Hefei City, China.
A check of his travel record revealed that he had been overstaying in the country for more than two years as he arrived here in 2022 and he has not departed since then.
De Guzman said Wang was charged with running a gambling house, an offense which carries a penalty of eight years imprisonment under China’s criminal law.
BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said that Chinese authorities reportedly alleged that between January 2019 to September 2021, Wang and his accomplices established and operated gambling platforms in the Internet which catered to Chinese customers.
Sandoval said the suspects advertised the gambling platforms online which enabled them to attract large number of customers from whom they earned profits estimated at more than 78 million yuan, or roughly US$10.7 million.
Wang is currently detained at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where he will remain pending deportation proceedings.
