BI arrests American who violated parole in Pangasinan

January 24, 2018

Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents caught their first foreign fugitive in 2018 with the recent arrest in Pangasinan of an overstaying American national wanted by authorities in California for parole violation.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said operatives from the bureau’s fugitive search unit arrested last Jan. 20 Larry John St. Clair, 45, in Dagupan City.

Morente said St. Clair was issued an arrest warrant by a US district court in Eastern California for violating the conditions of his release and fleeing to the Philippines.

“He (St. Clair) is the first 2018 casualty of our relentless campaign to flush out wanted foreign criminals using the Philippines as a sanctuary to evade prosecution and sentence for their crimes,” the BI chief said.

He said St. Clair will be deported for being an undocumented alien which stemmed from the revocation of his passport by the US government.

BI intelligence officer and FSU chief Bobby Raquepo said St. Clair had been here since June 2015 or four years after the California court approved his petition for supervised release.

The court cancelled his probation a few months after his release when authorities reported that he allegedly continued to engage in criminal acts such as grand theft of several properties and stealing the dog of a neighbor.

“He was also the subject of a blacklist order issued by the BI for possession of counterfeit visa extension stamps,” Raquepo said.

Information provided by the US embassy revealed that in 2009 the California court convicted St. Clair for possession of a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking, manufacture of 100 marijuana plants, and possession and transportation of stolen explosives.

He was sentenced to 64 months in prison but became eligible for parole after serving his term for 36 months. DMS