NBI raids room and office of Lapu-Lapu Pogo hub operator

Personnel of the NBI Cebdo conducted another raid at the Lapu-Lapu City Pogo hub on Wednesday, October 23, to examine the contents of the bedroom and office occupied by one of its Chinese operators. | Paul Lauro

CEBU CITY, Philippines — Agents from the National Bureau of Investigation-Cebu District Office (Cebdo) conducted another round of raids inside the Pogo hub in Brgy. Agus, Lapu-Lapu City on Wednesday, October 23.

This time, the law enforcers served the search warrant to examine the office and bedroom that was occupied by one of the Pogo hub’s operators, Chinese national Zhao Shou Qi.

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Zhao was one of the 169 foreign nationals caught inside the Tourist Garden Hotel during a raid, which was initially a rescue operation for a group of Indonesians believed to be illegally detained.

Further investigation revealed that Zhao and 15 other foreign nationals were allegedly operators of the Pogo hub. Not long after, they were charged with qualified trafficking in persons.

Through the first search warrant, operatives seized computer sets, mobile phones, documents, and three metal vaults found in the area used as an office of the workers.

Zhao’s office, however, was not included in the warrant, according to NBI-Cebdo head Arnel Pura.

Therefore, they applied for another search warrant which was granted by the court on Tuesday, October 22.

NBI agents then served the search warrant on Wednesday afternoon and raided the hotel, which has been strictly secured since the raid last August 30. 

The warrant states that the search was ordered after they found reasonable grounds to believe that several (piece of) equipment and documents related to illegal activities were being concealed inside Zhao’s room and office located at the second floor of building number eight.

These items allegedly include computer systems, SEC registration and other documents, gadgets, sim cards, cash proceeds, cash counting machine, seven safety steel vaults, immigration documents, passbooks, ledgers, bills, and contracts.

According to Pura, the items they have found at the suspect’s room and office may be used as additional evidence against the foreign nationals they charged for operating the Pogo hub in Lapu-Lapu.