Nigerian nabbed for swindling

A Nigerian national was arrested in an entrapment operation in Cavite for selling fake visas to two Kenyan students in Cebu City.

Superintendent Romeo Baleros, chief of the Cavite police intelligence branch, on Thursday said Thomas Magnus, 40, a resident of Bacoor, Cavite, was arrested at around 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday inside a branch of a money transfer courier in Barangay Molino 1, as he tried to claim some cash that his victims had wired to him.

Baleros said two Kenyan students named Clyde Wende and Njiri Elias Owiti, both 23, and students of the San Carlos University in Cebu, had filed a complaint at the police Provincial Public Safety Co. in Cavite against Magnus.

Baleros said Magnus introduced himself as an employee of the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation and offered to help the students to renew their expired visas for a fee. Baleros said the two students had paid more than P150,000 but later found out that the visas Magnus had sent them were fake.

Baleros said Magnus offered to replace the fake visas and attempted to again collect money from the students which led to the police entrapment.

The police filed charges of estafa and swindling against the Nigerian. Maricar Cinco, Inquirer Southern Luzon