Alleged 'Bangladeshi mastermind' of syndicate falsifying passports detained in Malaysia
According to local media reports, the arrestee is popularly known as ‘Ofu Bhai’.
Malaysia's Immigration Department has detained a Bangladeshi man suspected to be the mastermind of a syndicate falsifying passport details, believed to be the first of its kind, reports Straits Times.
According to the report published yesterday (13 May), the arrestee is popularly known as 'Ofu Bhai'.
His syndicate has been active for two years, it stated.
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The group is responsible for "falsifying the passport details of Bangladeshis and other foreigners with expired passports by tearing the front page of the passport and sticking a new page with updated expiry dates."
The syndicate would charge around RM1,000-1,500 (Tk24,696-37,044) per person for the falsified documents, according to the Straits Times report.
The passports with forged details would then be used by the foreigners to obtain Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomema) clearance.
The syndicate had charged RM600 to RM1,000 per person for getting Fomema clearance.
Immigration Department director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said the 38-year-old Ofu Bhai was detained without a valid travel document alongside his partner, a 40-year-old Filipino who had overstayed, during a raid at premises in Kajang on Friday.
The authorities also seized a set of computers and 211 expired passports of which 199 were from Bangladesh, Datuk Ruslin also said.
He said others included passports from India, the Philippines and Indonesia.
They also seized 31 front-page sheets with falsified documents, 144 sheets of Fomema documents, various tools for falsifying documents and RM16,000 in cash.
Ruslin said both of the suspects have been remanded for 14 days at the Putrajaya Immigration depot to facilitate investigations under Section 55D of the Immigration Act 1956/63 and Section 12(1)(a) of the Passport Act 1966.
