Passport forgery syndicate busted
> 26 nabbed, including Bangladesh national believed to be mastermind
PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department has smashed one of the biggest passport forgery syndicates in the country with the arrest of 26 people, including a 50-year-old Bangladesh national believed to be the mastermind.
Immigration Director-General Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the raid by the department’s enforcement officers at several premises throughout the Klang Valley on Monday night resulted in the arrest of 18 Bangladesh nationals, including a woman, two Pakistan nationals, four Indonesian women, one Filipino woman and a local man, aged between 25 and 50.
“The department’s officers also seized two vehicles, numerous fake foreign passports, Immigration Department rubber stamps, foreign visa stickers, four computers, a printer and four thumb drives during the raid, that also uncovered numerous files involving document forgery.
“They also recovered falsified Visit Pass-Temporary Employment permits, fake Malaysian passports and passportsized photos, among others,” he told a press conference at the Immigration Department’s headquarters yesterday.
The suspected mastermind was arrested at his rented apartment in Sri Petaling, Kuala Lumpur, while several of his family members were arrested at another apartment he rented at the same location.
Investigations revealed the suspected mastermind had set up several businesses to cover his illegal activities.
“The suspect had arrived in the country on a social visit pass in 2005, before gaining employment in the construction sector.
“He worked for awhile before engaging in producing illegal documents and fake passports by setting up numerous companies such as a business management consultancy, textile shop, restaurant, general insurance firm, and contract works and trading companies to mask his activities,” Mustafar said.
Initial investigations revealed that the syndicate managed the application of semi-skilled foreign workers by using fake Bangladesh education certificates, with forged company documents to fulfil application requirements.
The syndicate also arranges the illegal entry of these foreign workers into the country, charging them between RM5,000 and RM7,000 each.
“The discovery of numerous fake passports and visas from countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Korea, India, Japan and China meant that the syndicate also used Malaysia as a transit point to facilitate its illegal activities, such as producing expatriate papers, before flying them off to these countries to work,” he said.
The raid was conducted following a two-month surveillance.
It is believed that the syndicate made millions of ringgit from these activities over the past two years.
“We are still investigating how much money was involved following the seizure of bank cards linked to the said companies. The local man arrested is believed to have acted as a runner for the syndicate.
“They were believed to have charged between US$5,000 (RM19,516) and US$10,000 (RM39,032) to prepare fake foreign passports, visas and documentation for transit purposes,” he added.