PUTRAJAYA: The Immigration Department busted the operations of the ‘Ofu Bhai’ syndicate, involved in falsifying passports over the past two years, in a house in Kajang, Selangor on Friday (May 10).
Its director-general, Datuk Ruslin Jusoh said in the operation carried out at about 4.15pm, a 38-year-old Bangladeshi mastermind, known as ‘Ofu Bhai’ was arrested along with his 40-year-old Filipina partner.
He said the syndicate offered the services of falsifying passports which had expired for a fee of between RM1,000 and RM1,500 per passport.
“This is a new tactic…where the syndicate falsified passports that had expired by amending the passport’s expiry date information only, with the original owner’s information retained, to mislead the authorities,“ he said in a press conference here today.
ALSO READ: Johor Immigration busts ‘flying passport’ syndicate masterminded by foreign duo
“The syndicate would then use the false information on the passports to obtain approval of the Foreign Workers Medical Examination Monitoring Agency (Fomena), with a fee of RM600 to RM1,000 for each document.”
He said the inspection of the house led to the discovery of a computer, 211 passports comprising 199 Bangladesh passports, four Indian passports, three Philippine passports, three Myanmar passports 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.
ALSO READ: Passport forgery syndicate busted with arrest of mastermind, two others
“We believe that this syndicate may have other networks (operating) outside. We know that most of the syndicate transactions are done online,“ he also 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.
