Family-run Bangladeshi syndicate churning out fake ID cards busted
PETALING JAYA: All it took was 10 minutes, with easily available material and equipment, for a family-run Bangladeshi syndicate to churn out Enforcement Cards for undocumented foreign workers.
The Immigration Department arrested 14 suspects, including a man and his wife during a raid at a house in Seri Kembangan, after about three weeks of surveillance.
One of the suspects was brought in to show members of the media how they made the fake documents at the department’s Kuala Lumpur office.
After obtaining a picture of the customer, the syndicate would patch the photo onto a template of either an E-card, or a Construction Industry Development Board Card (CIDB card), before printing a copy and laminating it.
Investigating officers also found that the group had operated from a rented shop that sells telephone prepaid cards and accessories, which acted as a front for their card-making operation.
The shop was also used to find prospective customers.
Among the items seized were printing equipment, and a car that was believed to have been bought using profits from the “business”.
Immigration director- general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said they believe the group made around 30 cards a day and raked in profits of up to RM30,000 a month.
“We believed they had been operating for at least a year,” he said.
Mustafar also said the syndicate could have sold the fake cards outside the Klang Valley.
He added that the department was investigating to see if the syndicate was involved in other illegal operations.
“The department believes that there are many more syndicates such as these operating in the country and we will increase our efforts to combat these activities,” said Mustafar.
A total of 125 members of the Kuala Lumpur Immigration Department took the anticorruption pledge yesterday.
The pledge was overseen by Mustafar and representatives from the Malaysian Anti- Corruption Commission.