A total of 180 foreign fugitives were arrested in 2024 and most of them have been deported on requests of their governments, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.
Citing a report from its Fugitive Search Unit (BI-FSU), the bureau said that those arrested were 74 Koreans, 62 Chinese nationals, 12 Taiwanese, 11 Japanese, seven Americans, two Italians, two Australians, a Briton, a Canadian, a German, an Indian, an Indonesian, a Jordanian, a Kyrgystani, a Liberian, a Nigerian, and a Serbian.
The BI said that based on information from foreign countries, the offenses committed by the fugitives included economic crimes, investment scams, illegal gambling, money laundering, telecommunications fraud, robbery, and narcotics trading.
“Nearly all of them were already deported to their countries of origin where they are currently serving time in prison after being convicted for crimes they committed,” said BI-FSU Acting Chief Rendel Ryan Sy.
In a statement, BI Commissioner Joel Anthony M. Viado said: “As we have repeatedly declared, the Philippines is off limits to all foreign fugitives, because this country is not a sanctuary for alien criminals.”
The BI said that among the notable arrests were those of six Japanese members of the notorious "Luffy" gang, namely, Takayuki Kagashima, Sawada Masaya, Ueda Koji, Sjuzuki Seiji, Kiyohara Jun, and Nagaura Hiroki who are wanted for involvement in scams, extortion and fraud activities.
It also cited the arrests of Australian Gregor Johann Haas and Serbian Predrag Mirkovic, who are wanted for illegal drugs, and the apprehension of Indian-Nepalese Joginder Geong who is wanted for charges of murder, extortion and robbery.