Immigration officer on cops’ list

KUALA LUMPUR: Police are searching for an immigration officer who is suspected of being involved with a syndicate that counterfeits immigration documents especially foreign worker permits.
It is learned that the suspect's role was to convince victims that he was familiar with application procedures.
"We want him to come and surrender to the police to help us with the investigation," said Datuk Abdul Jalil Hassan, deputy director of the commercial crime investigations department (Intelligence/Operation).
In an operation codenamed "Ops Levy" conducted last Sunday, 10 members of the syndicate were nabbed by police at their house in an undisclosed location.
"We nabbed eight men and two women suspected to be active in this syndicate from last year. The two women are Thai and Indonesian. The Indonesian woman has already obtained permanent resident status and is the wife of the suspected immigration officer," said Abdul Jalil.
"The house that we busted was used as the office for the operation," he added.
In the operation, police also seized 223 passports, eight handphones, two laptops, 15 stamps, a pair of vest, necktie, shirt and jacket with the immigration symbol and documents from various companies and also Indonesian Rupiah amounting to 83 million.
Abdul Jalil said eight companies have been cheated by this syndicate with losses amounting to RM3 million.
The suspects aged between 28 to 56 have been detained for further investigation.
Police urged employers of foreign workers to always go to the immigration office to renew and apply for their employees' permit to avoid this situation.