Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents arrested a South Korean fugitive wanted by authorities in Seoul for operating an illegal gambling site on the Internet.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the “alien” as 45-year-old Lee Jaehun, who was arrested inside a commercial complex in Brgy. Holy Spirit, Quezon City.
Lee was arrested on the strength of a warrant that Morente issued pursuant to a summary deportation order signed in March 2017, tagging Lee an undesirable and overstaying alien.
It was gathered that Lee had been in the country for almost a decade as records show that he last arrived here in 2012.
According to BI-FSU acting chief Rendel Ryan Sy, Lee is the subject of an arrest warrant issued by the Changwon district court in Korea nearly five years ago after he was charged for violating his country’s law against illegal gambling.
Sy said Lee was accused of conspiring with other suspects in operating an online server wherein customers would gamble by betting on the results of sports competitions.
South Korean authorities placed the amount of money that gamblers had betted on the site from January 2015 to October 2016 at more than 1.4 trillion won or roughly $1.17 million.
Sy also reported that Lee’s passport was already revoked by the Korean government, thus making him an undocumented alien.
The fugitive is presently detained at the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending implementation of the deportation order that was issued against him.
He was also placed on the immigration blacklist and banned from re-entering the Philippines.
“There is no holiday break for our operatives. If you are a foreign national staying here illegally, you should legalize your stay before the holidays, unless you want to spend it being arrested and deported,” he warned.