MANILA, Philippines - The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has detained two foreigners allegedly engaged in the notorious “black dollar” swindling scam.
Christophe Korouma, a Guinean national, and Artur Felisberto Donae, a Mozambique national, are at the Bicutan Immigration jail after they were turned to the BI last week by the Philippine National Police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
BI Commissioner Nonoy Libanan ordered the conduct of deportation proceedings against the two men once the estafa case filed against them before the Mandaluyong regional trial court has been resolved.
Records show that CIDG operatives arrested the two men last June 8 during an entrapment operation at a coffee shop in Mandaluyong City.
The aliens received marked money from Adelina Buenconsejo of Quezon City, who reported their activities to the police.
She alleged that she had given the suspects P200,000 as payment for a vault box purportedly containing “black dollars.” She was told the dollars, after being washed with a special chemical, would turn into real US currency amounting to $7 million.
Buenconsejo said the suspects subjects allegedly demanded an additional P1 million, and threatened to harm her and her family when she refused. The threats prompted her to report them to the CIDG.
Two more Africans, believed to be accomplices of the suspects, eluded arrest and are now the objects of a police manhunt. – Rudy Santos, Evelyn Macairan