Immigration Dept cripples largest passport forgery syndicate (Updated)

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 behind the scheme.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Seri Mustafar Ali said the raid by the department's enforcement officers at various premises throughout the Klang Valley on Monday night resulted in the arrest of 18 Bangladesh nationals including one woman, two Pakistan nationals, four Indonesian women, one Filipino woman and a local man, aged between 25 to 50 years.
"The department's officers also seized two vehicles, numerous fake foreign passports, Immigration rubber stamps, foreign visa stickers, four computers, a printer and four thumb drives during the raid, which also uncovered numerous files involving document forgery.
"They also recovered falsified Visit Pass-Temporary Employment (PLKS), fake Malaysian passport, passport-sized photos among others," he told reporters during a press conference at the Immigration Department's headquarters, here today.
The suspected mastermind, he said, 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 place.
Mustafar said investigations revealed the suspected mastermind had set up several businesses to mask 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 his way before engaging in preparing illegal documents and passport by setting up numerous companies such as business management consultancy, textiles, restaurants, general insurance, contract works and trading to mask his activities," he noted.
Initial investigations revealed that the syndicate managed the applications of semi-skilled foreign workers by using fake Bangladesh education certificates, along with forged company documents to fulfill the application criteria.
The syndicate also prepared the illegal entry of these foreign workers into the country by charging them between RM5,000 to RM7,000 each.
"The discovery of numerous fake passports and visas from countries such as Singapore, Switzerland, Canada, Korea, India, Japan and China among others meant that the syndicate also uses Malaysia as a transit country to facilitate illegal documents such as expatriate papers for instance before flying them off to these countries to work," he said.
The raid was conducted following a two months of surveillance, he added.
It is believed that the syndicate had made millions of ringgit from these activities, in 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 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 the transit purpose," he added.