Filipino hacker on FBI watchlist arrested during raid

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Filipino Peter Alexei Locsin, who is on the watchlist of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), was finally arrested with the help of the national police on Thursday during a raid in Bacolod City.

Locsin was on US FBI’s watchlist for bank fraud and international hacking.

The FBI had been working with the Regional Intelligence Unit-6 (RIU-6) and the national police since earlier this year for his capture, RIU-6 team leader Senior Police Officer 1 Joshua Barile said in a Philippine Star report.

The joint police force had been closely watching and monitoring Locsin and had finally arrested him in his residence in Doña Juliana Subdivision, Barangay Taculing.

Aside from his hack and fraud case, he was also arrested for the illegal possession of drugs and firearms. Recovered from him were a computer set, five mobile phones, 22 bank cards, traces of suspected shabu, an M4 riffle, a 12-gauge shotgun, a .22 caliber pistol, an air gun, eight magazines and several bullets.

Also captured were Mathews Alunan, Chito Garrido, Paul de la Peña and James Richard Talde, who were purportedly having a ‘pot session’ with Locsin.

While drug charges against them were still pending until drug test results were available, Locsin and his four companions were charged for their illegal possession of firearms and ammunitions.

But after settling his ‘domestic cases,’ Locsin would then be handed over to the FBI. For the meantime, the FBI would ‘exploit’ evidence against him through his seized computer and bank cards, Barile disclosed.