Nine foreigners and two Filipinos were arrested after they were caught with trolley bags which contained over P440 million in cash at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport in Lapu-Lapu City, Cebu on Friday.
Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission executive director Undersecretary Gilbert Cruz said the suspects were intercepted at the security screening checkpoint of the airport’s general aviation terminal at around 10:30 p.m.
Six foreigners are Chinese, one Malaysian, one Indonesian and a citizen from Kazakhstan. They were accompanied by two Filipinos who were also arrested by airport security personnel.
Philippine National Police spokesperson Brig. Gen. Jean Fajardo said one of the Chinese men, Wu Song, has a red notice alert for fraud from Interpol.
She said suspects, Li Fei and Chen Hao, have warrants of arrest for various crimes.
Fajardo said the foreigners arrived in Cebu on Friday at around 9 pm on board a van and went straight to a casino where White Horse Club, one of the junket operators linked to the kidnap-slay of Filipino-Chinese businessman Anson Que, used to operate.
The suspects were supposed to board a private plane at around 11:30 p.m. when they were apprehended.
Airport security personnel detained the suspects after they saw large sums of cash inside the trolley bags they were carrying which were subjected to x-ray screening.
Based on an initial inventory, Fajardo said the trolley bags contained P441,922,542 as well as $168,730 and 1,000 Hong Kong dollars. DMS