PETALING JAYA: Two foreigners, believed to be the brains behind a fake document syndicate, have been arrested.
The Immigration Department said an operation was conducted on Nov 14 in Setapak, leading to three raids in the area.
The raids were the result of an investigation into the racket following public complaints.
The two suspected masterminds were arrested in addition to seven more suspects.
The masterminds, both Pakistani men, were aged 27 and 55, while the other suspects from India and Pakistan were aged between 21 and 55.
“Upon questioning, the two men led the operation team to a residence where 161 passports of various origins were seized,” the department said in a statement.
Of the 161 passports seized, 74 were from Bangladesh and 33 from Pakistan. An Iraqi and a Thai passport were also found.
One of the two masterminds had a valid temporary working pass while the other had no valid documents.
The modus operandi of the syndicate includes offering passports to foreigners who do not have travel documents.
They would use genuine passports or those that have expired and transfer the biodata information to their clients to obtain Fomema health examinations.
