A TOTAL of 17 fugitives said to be involved in a large-scale online financial scam operation was deported by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Tuesday.
According to BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval, the deportation was carried out on morning of January 21, wherein the 17 Taiwanese nationals were boarded on a direct flight to Taipei, after being tagged as undesirable aliens by the BI.
She said the deported foreign nationals were apprehended during a joint operation on May last year by the National Bureau of Investigation Special Task Force (NBI-STF), the NBI Cybercrime Division (NBI-CCD) and government intelligence forces at an upscale subdivision in Cebu City, where authorities uncovered a fully operational online finance scam hub, she added.
Investigators reportedly caught the said individuals in flagrante, or while actively manning workstations and running scam operations without the required visas or permits, in direct violation of Philippine immigration laws.
Too, digital forensic examination confirmed the presence of romance and investment scam scripts, messaging platforms and other tools used to deceive victims.
Sandoval said several of those deported were also confirmed to have standing warrants of arrest abroad.
After their deportation, all 17 aliens individuals were permanently blacklisted and barred from reentering the Philippines, she added.
