At least 232 foreign fugitives—one a Kuwaiti bomb maker and suspected ISIS member—who hid in the country to evade prosecution and sentencing for crimes they committed in their homelands were arrested by Bureau of Immigration operatives in 2017.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said 97 more foreign fugitives were caught last year, compared to the 135 wanted men arrested in 2016.
The aliens were arrested in various operations conducted by operatives of the BI Fugitive Search Unit headed by BI intelligence officer Bobby Raquepo in various places throughout the country.
The captured fugitives were already deported to their respective homelands and are now being tried or are serving their jail sentences.
“They were also placed in our blacklist of undesirable aliens to make sure that they do not return to the Philippines and pose a risk to our public safety and security,” Morente said.
Raquepo said some of those captured were classified as “high value targets” due to the nature and gravity of their crimes.
They included Hussein Aldhafiri, the Kuwaiti bomb maker and ISIS member, who was arrested in Taguig City last March for his foiled attack on a mosque and a military base in his country.
Aldhafiri was arrested in the company of a Syrian woman named Rahaf Zina, alleged widow of the late Abu Jandal, former ISIS leader in Iraq.
Also arrested was American Yoshikoson Umeko Haddon, who was wanted in Virginia for capital murder, killing for hire, and solicitation of an adult.
Immigration records showed that of the 232 aliens, 178 were arrested on the strength of mission orders issued by Morente, while 41 were subjects of deportation warrants issued on orders of the BI board of commissioners. The rest were either turned over, have surrendered, or were intercepted at the airports.
Chinese nationals topped the list of fugitives arrested with 131, followed by Koreans (61), Taiwanese (36), and Americans (11).
