THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced yesterday it arrested last year a total of 257 foreign criminals who hid in the country to evade criminal prosecution or service of sentence in their countries.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the number was higher than the 232 wanted foreigners arrested in 2017.
They were arrested in various operations conducted throughout the country by operatives from the BI fugitive search unit headed by intelligence officer Bobby Raquepo.
Morente said most of the fugitives were already deported and are now serving their jail sentences after trial and conviction.
“All of them were also placed in our blacklist of undesirable aliens to make sure that they do not return and pose threat to our public safety and security,” the BI chief said.
Statistics show that 98 of the captured fugitives were wanted for fraud and economic crimes, 98 for telecom fraud, 44 for cybercrime, seven for sex offenses, five for kidnapping; one for robbery extortion; one for gun possession and drug distribution; and one for smuggling.
Raquepo said the focus of the campaign last year was the neutralization of organized syndicates involved in cyber crimes and cyber fraud. (Jun Ramirez)