US fugitive facing drug raps nabbed in Baguio

An American fugitive facing drug charges has been arrested in Baguio City and will be deported today, the two governments said yesterday.

Thomas Scott Crossland, 36, a native of Muskogee, Oklahoma, was arrested in Baguio last Tuesday after the US Justice Department asked Philippine police for help in tracking him down, said Director Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., chief of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force.

Crossland was facing charges of manufacturing illegal metamphetamines in the United States when he fled to the Philippines, Ebdane said.

He was declared a fugitive in February last year after he failed to appear in court, Ebdane said in a statement.

Crossland will reportedly be deported today, escorted by agents of the US Marshals Service.

"In normal cases involving a US fugitive, we get him out very quickly. We have very good cooperation with law enforcement here with these type of cases," US Embassy spokesman Thomas Skipper said.

Crossland and his Filipina wife, Eleta Tacla, are also facing charges of illegal cultivation and sale of marijuana, Ebdane said.

Police raided a marijuana plantation in Tacla’s hometown of Sto. Domingo in Ilocos Sur last Feb. 4 and seized about 20,000 fully grown marijuana plants and 2,500 seedlings valued at P2.4 million, but Crossland escaped, Ebdane said.

Crossland was later tracked down in Baguio where he is suspected to have been selling the marijuana harvested from the plantation. He was cornered in the residence of his sister-in-law at QM Subdivision.

Meanwhile, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo disputed reports that her bureau was to blame for the departure of 14 foreigners who were arrested for stock market fraud two weeks ago.

Domingo reacted to the statement of Raul Francia, spokesman of the Department of Justice, that the 14 foreigners, who left for Hong Kong last Feb. 22 after posting P40,000 bail each, managed to depart by virtue of voluntary deportation orders which the bureau allegedly issued.

Domingo said her bureau never issued such orders, although the foreigners had requested for voluntary deportation.

She said the bureau’s board of commissioners did not act on their request after being informed that the police would file criminal complaints against the foreigners — 11 Britons, a Canadian, a Czech and an Italian.

In fact, she said the bureau decided to return the 14 foreigners to the custody of the Philippine National Police on Feb. 18, a day after they were turned over to the agency.

Domingo said the foreigners could have been prevented from leaving the country had the Makati City court issued a hold departure order. — Rey Arquiza, Jaime Laude