ILOILO CITY – Seventeen male Chinese nationals were arrested after police agents raided a suspected cybersex den in Barangay Lawa-an in Iloilo City’s Jaro District before dawn Saturday.
In an interview, Lt. Col. Antonio Benitez Jr, chief of the City Drugs Enforcement Unit of the Iloilo City Police Office, said they stormed the rented house at 4:10 a.m., based on a search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 39 presiding Judge Victorino Maniba Jr. and following more than a month of surveillance.
“The operation resulted in the arrest of 17 Chinese nationals who are involved in cybersex,” Benitez said.
The suspects, all of legal age, served as facilitators for Filipino and foreign clients, Benitez said.
The suspects had ready videos and photos of nude individuals and models on standby in case they have clients interested in seeing live footage, he explained, but added that no models were present when the operation was conducted.
“Based on our information, they have been in operation for more or less six months. Our monitoring and surveillance operations lasted for more than one month,” the official said.
Evidence recovered included 24 computer units, 49 assorted units of cellular phones, two switch hubs TP-link with 24 ports, two routers, one projector, one monitor, one modem, and one bundle and four boxes of subscriber identity module (SIM) cards.
The suspects are currently detained at Stations 1 and 3 while cases of violation of Republic Act 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act are being readied against them.
“We tried to extract information from them, but it was difficult due to the language barrier. During the operation, we have with us an interpreter so we can inform them of their rights because they could not understand English,” he added.
The operation was conducted along with the Cybercrime Investigation and Coordinating Center of the Department of Information and Communications Technology. (PNA)
