STA. BARBARA – The arrest of the American lawyer fugitive in Barangay Botao here earned recognition from the United States (US) Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

In a simple awarding ceremony in this town’s police station, certificates of recognition were handed to 18 cops who participated in the swift and peaceful arrest of an FBI-wanted fugitive.

Assistant Legal Attache John Sapinoso presented the awards, together with the town mayor, retired Police General Reynaldo Velasco, Pangasinan Police Director, Senior Superintendent Percival Barba and Senior Superintendent Angelito Tan.

FBI Legal Attache James Nixon signed the certificate of recognition, which states, “in recognition of your outstanding investigative efforts that directly led to the identification, location and apprehension of a United States fugitive wanted by FBI. Your dedication to duty and resourcefulness during the June 15-16, 2009 fugitive investigation at Pangasinan , Philippines are reflective of your agency’s continuing commitment to the international law enforcement community.”

“This is the first time we received an international recognition,” said Senior Police Officer 4 Jaime Jimenez, the head of investigation of the police station.

Mayor Velasco proudly acknowledged the police operatives who demonstrated exemplary performance. “We maybe a small town but big in performance, enough to make a mark in the international law enforcement community,” Velasco said.

Joseph Aldan Arriola, 42, who has been indicted in the US , was arrested in Barangay Botao this town. Accordingly, Arriola’s passports had earlier been revoked by the US State Department because he was the subject of a warrant of arrest issued by US courts.

Acting on information from the FBI and the orders of Senior Superintendent Percival Barba, we formed tracker teams to hunt Arriola,” says Superintendent Eric Noble, the local police chief. The tracker teams scoured the town and conducted stakeout operations in Arriola’s reported hiding place in barangay Cablong.

On the day of the arrest, town chief Supt. Eric Noble pretended to be a US Embassy liaison looking for Arriola’s fiancée to verify information relating to her application for a US visa.

Said fiancée was not home, but a man appearing to be curious about the visa application, and who later turned out to be Arriola, welcomed the team and invited the disguised police officers into the house.

After verifying identities, the policemen gave the signal to personnel of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) who came in and arrested the Arriola. The BI personnel were earlier directed to arrest Arriola for violation of Philippine immigration laws. Although surprised by the turn of events, Arriola went peacefully with the arresting team.