BI arrests overstaying Kyrgyz woman for alleged drug links

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently arrested an overstaying woman from Kyrgyzstan for her alleged involvement in the illegal drug trade.

Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the BI fugitive search unit (FSU) apprehended Anara Ruslanova, 29, in a residential village in Makati City on July 23 for alleged links to a West African drug syndicate, whose members were arrested by the BI and the National Bureau of Investigation on June 20, 2022.

Meanwhile, the BI chief said Ruslanova was previously slapped with a deportation case for being an undesirable and overstaying alien.

In November 2023, the BI board of commissioners ordered her deportation and inclusion in the immigration blacklist, which banned her from reentering the Philippines.

Records showed that the Kyrgyz woman last arrived in the country in October 2018 and has not departed since then. She had not applied for any type of visa to extend her stay in the country legally.

Ruslanova was turned over to the BI custodial facility, where she will stay while awaiting deportation. —Sundy Locus/VBL, GMA Integrated News