Manila high-rise condo raid: 4 Chinese suspects arrested, mastermind escapes by scaling building, security charged for tipping off!

On the afternoon of June 19, 2025, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) of the Philippines raided a high-rise residential building in Manila, the capital, and dismantled a suspected transnational telecommunications fraud den, arresting four Chinese men on the spot. The organization was involved in various schemes including "virtual currency fraud" and "romance scams," primarily targeting victims abroad.

The main culprit escaped, and the police directly accused the security of "tipping off."

Noel Bocaling, the Deputy Director of the NBI, revealed that the key target of this operation was a wanted Chinese "technical mastermind," originally planned to be captured in Tagaytay, but due to his changing whereabouts, the police finally located him in a luxury apartment in Manila.

When investigators arrived at the scene, they were "deliberately delayed" by the apartment security. Bocaling said, "We were clearly obstructed, security kept calling upstairs." Minutes later, the police were allowed in, but the main suspect had already disappeared, presumably having been tipped off in advance.

The identity of the insider was exposed, and he was nearly beaten to death.

During the operation, a police informant inside the apartment was unfortunately identified. Reportedly, a suspect found the informant's message on a colleague's phone, immediately surrounded him with others, and attacked him by choking, intending to silence him. Fortunately, the NBI broke in just in time, successfully rescuing the informant and preventing major casualties.

"Escaping by jumping out of the 35th-floor window": Like a scene from an action movie

When the officers reached the room involved, they found the door locked from the inside and the room empty. Even more astonishing, six Chinese individuals were seen climbing out of the window from the 35th floor and escaping along the exterior wall structure. "They had rehearsed beforehand, and their escape method was comparable to a movie scene," the NBI stated.

New fraud mode: No longer "group operation," but shifting to "individual operation"

The equipment seized at the scene showed that the fraud group had abandoned the traditional centralized "fraud factory" model, shifting to a lightweight operation mode of "one device per person." Each person operated an integrated computer, facilitating quick evacuation and covert operations. This new trend poses greater challenges for law enforcement.

Security accused of judicial obstruction, four suspects formally charged

Upon investigation, two security personnel of the involved apartment were charged with "obstruction of justice" for delaying access and prematurely calling the upstairs suspects, allegedly assisting in their escape.

As for the four arrested Chinese men, the prosecution has initiated criminal proceedings against them under the Anti-Financial Account Fraud Act (AFASA).

Suspects: We didn't know it was a scam

Facing police interrogation, one arrested suspect denied involvement in the scam, claiming he was "just helping a friend with some tasks" and insisted he was "unaware." The apartment security also stated that they simply followed the rules in letting people go and did not know the identity of the individuals involved.