Immigration Dept busts foreign passport-forging syndicate

The Immigration Department has busted the “Ofu Bhai” syndicate, which was involved in falsifying passports over the past two years.

Its director-general Ruslin Jusoh said a house in Kajang, Selangor was raided at about 4.15pm on May 10 which resulted in the arrest of a 38-year-old Bangladeshi mastermind known as “Ofu Bhai”.

His 40-year-old Filipina partner was also arrested.

He said the syndicate offered the services of falsifying passports which had expired for a fee of between RM1,000 and RM1,500 per document.

“This is a new tactic... where the syndicate falsified passports that had expired by amending the expiry date information only. The original owner’s information was retained, to mislead the authorities,” he said in a press conference in Putrajaya today.

“The syndicate would then use the false information on the passports to obtain Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomena) approval, with a fee of RM600 to RM1,000 for each document.”

Immigration DG Ruslin Jusoh

The inspection led to the discovery of a computer, 211 passports comprising 199 Bangladesh, four Indian, three Philippines, three Myanmar, and two Indonesian passports.

Also found were 31 passport biodata cover sheets, 144 pieces of Fomema documents, various equipment to forge documents, and RM16,000 in cash.

“A preliminary check found that the mastermind did not have travel documents or a valid passport to be in Malaysia and that his partner (the woman) had overstayed.

“We believe this syndicate may have other networks (operating) outside. We know that most of the syndicate’s transactions are done online,” he said.

Ruslin added that the two suspects have been remanded for 14 days at the Putrajaya immigration depot for further investigation under Section 55D of the Immigration Act 1959/63.

- Bernama