Some of the counterfeit passports.
Cops smash fake passport ring headed by Iranian master forger.
Thai police have broken up a major fake passport ring led by an
Iranian known as "The Doctor" which sent thousands of passports to
Middle Eastern customers trying to enter Europe, officers said today.
The kingdom has long been a hub for a forged document industry serving human traffickers and other criminals.
Five years of investigation culminated in Monday's arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind Hamid Reza Jafary, police said.
The 48-year-old had for many years been crafting sophisticated
forgeries from his home in Chachoengsao province east of Bangkok, they
said.
"He (Jafary) produced passports for people from countries including
Iran, Syria and Afghanistan who were escaping wars and wanted to enter
Europe," said immigration police commander Lieutenant General Nathathorn
Prousoontorn.
Clients emailed "The Doctor" their photos and specified the country
for which they wanted a passport, the commander said, adding he
guaranteed customers they would not be detected by border officials.
The forged documents were then sent via private courier companies.
It was not immediately clear if "The Doctor" provided passports to people fleeing to Europe during the current migrant crisis.
"He himself used six different passports — three from Brazil, and one
from each of Peru, Portugal and New Zealand. He was wanted by security
agencies in many countries, especially the EU and Japan," Nathathorn
added.
Jafary's fake passports were the "best quality in the market", an immigration officer who asked not to be named told AFP.
But he could not fake the latest microchipped travel documents, police added.
Five Pakistani middlemen were also arrested in raids in and around
Bangkok for assisting the forgery ring, which allegedly shipped
passports to overseas clients for up to THB 80,000.
Some of the nearly 200 travel documents found in a Monday raid on
Jafary's home were completely forged, while others had been stolen from
tourists and doctored, police said.
The raid also uncovered a laser engraving machine, rolls of thin
leather for passport covers and metal stamps from various countries.
Thousands of passports are reported missing annually in Thailand,
where forged documents of every variety can be purchased on the streets.
The flourishing market has helped establish Thailand as a hub for human traffickers and smugglers.
Two Uighur men awaiting trial for planting a deadly bomb in Bangkok last August have also been accused by police of running a crime group that helped illegal migrants obtain counterfeit documents.
The pair are currently being held in a military prison.
In 2014 the spotlight also swung onto the Thai-based trade when two
mystery passengers boarded the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 using European passports stolen in Thailand.
In 2010 Thai authorities took part in an international police sting
that saw two Pakistanis and a Thai woman arrested in Thailand for
providing fake passports to groups behind global terror attacks.
Story: AFP
Source: Coconuts
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