Bureau of Immigration officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) apprehended a Chinese national wanted by his government for participating in online gambling.

In a report given to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the BI-Interpol unit said that the Chinese passenger was intercepted on 17 April at NAIA Terminal 1 after he attempted to depart the country via a Xiamen Airlines flight bound for China.

According to reports, the passenger—whose identity remained anonymous following Interpol protocols—registered a blue notice hit in the BI's Interpol derogatory system, which prompted the immigration officer who processed him to refer him to his supervisors for secondary inspection.

After verifying that the passenger and the person with a derogatory record are one and the same, the BI on-duty supervisor immediately reported him to the BI Interpol Unit.

After that, the bureau informed its Chinese counterparts that a Chinese fugitive was expected to arrive in China, allowing the Chinese authorities to prepare for his arrest.

“He was arrested upon arrival at the Xiamen airport, as Chinese authorities were already informed about his arrival,” said BI-Interpol acting chief Jaime Bustamante.

The Chinese fugitive was allegedly part of a criminal organization that ran illicit online gambling sites on the Internet, which is completely forbidden by Chinese law, according to Interpol records.

Chinese authorities claimed that the alleged suspect and his associates ran an internet gambling business and used a variety of deceptive tactics to defraud their clients, making money from the losses incurred by the victims while playing games.

It is believed that the syndicate, which purportedly made more than 100 million yuan, or about US$13 million, from the fraudulent scheme, duped over 20,000 Chinese clients.