Philippines deports US fugitive

MANILA, Philippines – The Bureau of Immigration said Friday it has deported an American fugitive wanted for trafficking and possession of illegal drugs in the United States.

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said Paul John Zambuto, 35, was flown back to the US on a Philippine Airlines flight to Los Angeles, following the issuance of a summary deportation order by the bureau’s board of commissioners.

David said in a statement that the board also ordered Zambuto’s inclusion on the immigration blacklist for being an undesirable, overstaying and undocumented alien.

The immigration fugitive search unit headed by Uso Dan Salasim arrested Zambuto at his apartment at the Paseo Parkview condominium on Valero Street in Salcedo Village, Makati, last November 17.

Zambuto has been on the wanted list of the Federal Bureau of Investigation since 2007 on the strength of arrest warrants issued by courts in Arizona and Florida, Salasim said.

The US Embassy in Manila informed the immigration bureau that on Aug. 2, 2007, a superior court in Maricopa County, Arizona, issued a warrant for Zambuto arrest for violating the conditions of his probation.

He was previously convicted by the court of charges of possession of dangerous drugs.

Another warrant was issued against Zambuto by the judicial circuit court in Palm Beach County, Florida where he was charged with trafficking and possession of cocaine.

The Bureau of Immigration said Zambuto had been illegally staying in the Philippines for more than four years after the US State Department canceled his US passport even before he arrived in Manila on Nov. 12, 2007.