Five foreign fugitives, who have been charged criminally in their countries, have been arrested during operations conducted by the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado identified them as American Raymond Ross, 66; South Koreans Jung Yunyae, 26, and Jeon Heoknuk, 41;  Chinese Ji Shuncaho, 64; and Taiwanese Ye Tian Hao, 32.

“All five aliens are presently detained at the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City pending deportation proceedings,” the BI said. 

“There will be no letup in our campaign to catch and expel these fugitives whose presence here poses a serious threat to public safety and security,” Viado said in a statement on Thursday, Dec. 12. 

The BI said that Ross, who was arrested last Dec. 2 in Kabankalan City, Negros Oriental, is wanted in Pennsylvania for extortion and harassment.

“He is said to have pleaded guilty in April 2008 to one count of extortion through threatening communications for which he was sentence to 27 months in prison and three years of supervised release,” it said. 

The two Koreans, the BI said, were arrested together in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu last Dec. 3 and are wanted for kidnapping.

“The Koreans have an outstanding warrant of arrest issued by the Ulsan District Court in Korea where they were charged for luring a victim to work in Cambodia as a model for indecent advertisements,” it also said. 

The Chinese national who was arrested last Dec. 6 is wanted by the Shishi Municipal Public Security Bureau in China for claiming fraudulent tax refunds, it added.

“Subject allegedly bought an export declaration information sheet and used it, along with counterfeit VAT (value added tax) special invoices, to avail of export tax refunds amounting to almost 14 million renminbi, or roughly $2 million,” it said.

Last Dec. 8, the BI said the Taiwanese was arrested in Pasay City due to a warrant of arrest issued against him by the district prosecutor in Taichung, Taiwan where he was indicted for fraud.