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NBI Central Visayas Regional Director Rennan Oliva says the recovered smartphones and passports will be used as additional evidence for cases they will file against the scamming operators
CEBU, Philippines – National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) operatives in Cebu found on Thursday, September 26, more than 200 used smartphones, SIM cards, and passports inside of three vaults from the raided illegal Philippine offshore gaming operator (POGO) hub in the Tourist Garden Hotel.
This is the same hotel where authorities caught 169 foreign nationals on August 31 conducting love scams and cryptocurrency scams during an operation.
On September 5, the NBI served a search warrant at the hotel in Barangay Agus, Lapu-Lapu City, and seized multiple computer sets, smartphones, documents, and the vaults.
“All the things recovered inside the vaults can be used in our pending case, the qualified trafficking cases against 17 individuals,” NBI Central Visayas Regional Director Rennan Oliva said in a press conference.
Oliva referred to the 16 foreign nationals and one Filipino identified as perpetrators of illegal scamming operations at the Cebu hotel who were sued for qualified trafficking in persons on September 3.
Those arrested are facing cases for violating immigration laws and are now being held at the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission (PAOCC) detention facility located at the Nasdake Building in Pasay City.
The NBI regional director added that they will apply for a court order to examine the contents of the smartphones recovered from the vaults. The authorities are looking for possible evidence that can be used to file additional cases, including money laundering and cybercrimes.
More clues to the case
Operatives discovered that the passports found in the vaults belonged to Indonesian nationals.
“I can only speculate that these passports belong to the foreigners. I have not seen the passports yet but per testimonies of the rescued Indonesians, their passports were confiscated from them upon their arrival,” Oliva said.
The August 31 operation stemmed from the rescue of two Indonesian nationals who escaped from another suspected POGO hub in Mandaue City. The Indonesian embassy requested the NBI Cebu District Office to help with the rescue of other Indonesian nationals that the escapees said were still held in captivity.
During the operation at the Tourist Garden Hotel, officials rescued six of the eight Indonesians that the embassy requested.
Oliva asked why the smartphones were hidden inside vaults. The NBI official said that the smartphones may have valuable information on the POGO’s illegal operations.
“We’ll be applying before the courts a warrant for the disclosure of computer data. Together with the computers that we seized, we’ll be subjecting that, we’ll be coordinating with our Cybercrime Division in Manila for that examination,” Oliva said. – Rappler.com
