(File photo)
MANILA – Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers arrested a South Korean fugitive wanted by authorities in his country for illegal drugs at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Pasay City.
In a statement Thursday, the BI’s border control and intelligence unit (BCIU) reported that Son Hyunbeen, 37, was arrested upon his arrival at the NAIA Terminal 1 aboard a Philippine Airlines flight from Bangkok, Thailand last Dec. 15.
Son was arrested after the immigration officer who processed his arrival saw that his name prompted a positive hit in the International Criminal Police Organization's (Interpol) 24-hour global police communications system that is linked to the BI’s database of wanted foreign criminals.
He was later committed to the BI detention facility at Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City where he will remain until he is deported.
Information provided by the Interpol’s national central bureau (NCB) in Manila showed that Son is subject of an arrest warrant issued on Oct. 23, 2020 by the Suwon district court in South Korea where he was charged with illegally trading psychotropic drugs.
Authorities alleged that Son conspired with three other suspects in illegally importing methamphetamine from Cambodia into South Korea from May up to August in 2017.
They allegedly sold the drugs to South Korean customers 251 times from which they earned an estimated 157 million won or more than PHP6.7 million.
Commissioner Norman Tansingco lauded Son’s arrest as he described the fugitive as a menace to society due to his involvement in illegal drugs.
“His presence here is inimical to our nation, thus he should be deported for being an undesirable alien. We will also put him in our blacklist and perpetually banned from re-entering the country,” he said in a statement. (PNA)
