Police smash gang faking passports, foreign worker permits
KULAIJAYA: Police busted a gang specialising in faking passports and immigration permits after arresting four Indonesian men in separate raids in Senai here and Johor Baharu at the end of last month.
Kulaijaya police chief Supt Zulkefly Yahya said Friday all of the suspects, who impersonated as immigration officers, were caught by police after a report by a foreign worker agent who was their victim.
"According to the police report made at 8.45pm on Sept 27, the victim alleged he was cheated by a man who said he could manage foreign worker permit applications.
"Following that, the victim handed his foreign workers' passports to the man to be processed before the victim found the permits were fake when they were returned to him several days later," he told reporters at the Kulaijaya police station.
Zulkefly said police conducted an investigation and arrested a 38-year-old man in Taman Senai Utama here and seized 23 passports, five fake foreign worker i-kads as well as one official Malaysian government receipt.
He said police later detained two more men aged 48 and 47 years in a car park of a hotel in Pandan and a house in Majidee, Johor Baharu.
He said police confiscated five more fake passports and i-kads from them and investigations found one of them was a permanent resident who sought out potential victims.
The last arrest was a 30-year-old man who holds a valid passport in Kampung Bendahara, Johor Baharu and police seized permit, passport and i-kad production equipment as well as RM600 in cash from him, he said.
"In the incident, the victim was cheated for the first time by the men concerned and police believed there were other victims as the activity has been going on for a year," he said.
According to him, the four men sold each document at between RM30 and RM60 and they were now remanded until Monday to facilitate investigation under Section 420 of the Penal Code and Section 6(10(c) of the Immigration Act 1959/63. - Bernama
