BI intercepts Chinese nat'l sought by Interpol at NAIA

A Chinese man who was allegedly involved in credit card fraud was denied entry into the country by Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

The 29-year-old Chinese man, whose identity was withheld in compliance with Interpol protocol, was intercepted last week at NAIA Terminal 1 after arriving in the country via an Eva Air flight from Taipei, according to a report provided by the BI-Interpol unit to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.

BI-Interpol chief Jaime Bustamante stated that the suspect was sent back after the immigration official who processed him noticed that his name was on the BI's list of blacklisted foreign nationals in the country.

Bustamante added that the blacklist order stemmed from a blue notice issued by Beijing Interpol in November 2022 regarding the criminal case that is pending against him in Taiwan.

Tansingco praised the BI and Interpol's enhanced collaboration for the suspect's interception, calling it a prime example of how justice is meted out to overseas fugitives.

It was learned that the suspect was the subject of a criminal complaint filed in April 2019 by the Baoding City, Hebei Province, China, municipal public security bureau. The complaint related to the suspect's alleged involvement in selling his relatives' credit cards to fraud syndicates.

Investigators discovered that the man is suspected to have committed the offense between December 2018 and February 2019, at which point, he allegedly begged his sister to convince 39 of their relatives to promote credit card sales on the internet.

However, the cards were purchased by international criminal organizations at the behest of the suspect, who then left China and disappeared with the money he received from the sale.

The Baoding public security bureau then issued a warrant of criminal detention against him.