A former Philippine mayor who spent weeks on the run accused of spying for China has been arrested in Indonesia.
Philippine authorities have been searching Guo in 4 international locations since she disappeared in July amid investigations into her alleged legal actions.
She is accused of defending on-line casinos that had been a middle of fraud and a entrance for a human-trafficking ring in her pig-farming city of Bamban.
Ms Guo denies the accusations. Philippine officers mentioned they had been coordinating with their Indonesian counterparts to return her to the Philippines “as quickly as attainable.”
The previous mayor mentioned she grew up on the household farm together with her Chinese language father and Filipino mom, however lawmakers investigating the operations of the fraud middle accused her, a Chinese language citizen named Guo Huaping, of being a spy offering cowl for legal gangs .
The dramatic nature of the case sparked outrage within the nation and attracted worldwide consideration, after which her sister was arrested and questioned by the Philippine Senate.
Authorities consider Guo handed border inspections in July and took a number of boats throughout neighboring Malaysia and Singapore to Indonesia, the place he was arrested on Tuesday on the border west of the capital, Jakarta.
Whereas on-line casinos or Philippine on-line playing operations should not unlawful, they’re more and more being uncovered as a entrance for different crimes.
The businesses, which primarily serve mainland Chinese language shoppers, thrived beneath former President Rodrigo Duterte, who sought shut financial and political ties with Beijing.
However Duterte’s successor, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., has reversed the course of the nation’s international coverage since taking workplace in 2022 and has cracked down on crime associated to on-line playing.
