09 February 2024 BI AGENTS NAB KOREAN WANTED FOR TELCO FRAUD, DRUG TRAFFICKING The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced the arrest of a South Korean man wanted by authorities in Seoul for involvement in telecommunications fraud and drug trafficking. Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco identified the captured fugitive as 43-year-old Sim Dongwoo, who was arrested in Buenavista, Marinduque last Tuesday by operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU). Tansingco said Sim was arrested on the strength of a warrant which he issued pursuant to a summary deportation order that the BI board of commissioners issued against the Korean more than three years ago. “We will thus deport him immediately so he could face trial for the crimes he allegedly committed,” Tansingco said. “He was already included in our blacklist and perpetually banned from re-entering the country.” Information given by the BI-Interpol unit revealed that Sim became the subject of an Interpol red notice even before a warrant for his arrest was issued by the Seoul central district court in July 2021. Sim was reportedly charged for fraud before the said court for being a member of syndicate that defrauded its victims of more than 58 million won, or roughly US$44,000, by means of voice phishing. The suspects allegedly made random calls to victims by pretending to be financial advisors who offered fictitious loans in exchange for payment of processing fees. Furthermore, authorities also alleged that Sim and his accomplices also peddled illegal drugs by smuggling from Manila into South Korea 200 grams of the illegal methamphetamine drug called “Philopon” in September last year. The syndicate is suspected of having a total of more than a thousand grams of methamphetamine in five different occasions from August to December last year. Sim is currently detained at the BI warden facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City while awaiting his deportation to Korea.