Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents have arrested a Korean fugitive as he was about to board a plane at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
BI intelligence chief Fortunato Manahan Jr. identified the passenger as Ko Daeyun, 31, who was apprehended at the NAIA 3 terminal.
Manahan said Ko was about to board a Cebu Pacific flight to Seoul when he was accosted by operatives from the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) at the airport.
It was learned that the Korean had just presented himself to a BI officer at the immigration departure counter who noticed that the passenger’s name was in the BI’s watchlist of wanted foreign fugitives.
Ko was reportedly facing a deportation case before the BI legal division where he was charged for undesirability due to his being a fugitive from justice.
Korean authorities tagged Ko as a member of a telecommunications fraud syndicate that preys on its victims through voice phishing, or using phone calls to gain access to a person’s money and other personal information.
It was alleged that KO enticed a victim to give him his debit card. The former was able to withdraw more than a half a million won, or nearly US$400,000, from October to December 2021 after promising the victim his money would earn interest in a lending business.