THAILAND – A Pakistani passport forger whose fakes may have been sold tomilitant Islamic State (IS) group operatives has been arrested in Thailand,police said on Friday, ending a career that helped people slip into Europeillegally.
Mohammad Iqbal, 52, was arrested on January 14 in a Bangkok suburb inpossession of Singaporean and Indian fake passports as well as plates andlaminates to forge entry visas to France, Italy and Spain.
“He has worked on faking documents for a long time using Thailand as hisbase,” Commander of the Immigration Bureau Lt-Gen Suttipong Vongpint toldreporters in Bangkok.[image: Commander of the Immigration Bureau, Lt. Gen. Suttipong Vongpint(R), holds a fake Singaporean passport during a press conference inBangkok.— AFP]Commander of the Immigration Bureau, Lt. Gen. Suttipong Vongpint (R), holdsa fake Singaporean passport during a press conference in Bangkok.— AFP
The arrest is the latest in a series of targeted operations against skilledpassport forgers in Thailand as fears over security and immigration havecompelled authorities to tackle a shadowy industry that has thrived in thekingdom for decades.
Iqbal, who is believed to have operated from Thailand for more than 10years, was charged with falsifying passports, visa seals and trafficking offake passports a few days after police seized him as he pulled into hisBangkok condo on a motorbike.
Earlier this week defence minister Prawit Wongsuwan linked Iqbal to a groupselling passports to IS.
“The suspect has falsified visa and passports for the IS group with theattempt to make them travel from the Middle East into Thailand,” he saidbefore adding that the attempts were unsuccessful.
But at Friday’s press conference, officials downplayed the IS connectionsin favour of a portrait of a businessman who welcomed all clients.
“Based on the investigation he will sell to every group, not particularlyto IS, he just made them by orders,” Suttipong said.
A typical fake passport would sell for only a few hundred dollars,according to the immigration bureau.
Thailand’s role as a global hub for fake passports came under renewedscrutiny following the 2014 disappearance of Malaysian Airlines MH370.
Two Iranians travelling on European passports bought and modified inThailand were on board the ill-fated flight.
It is an industry dominated by highly skilled Iranians and Pakistanisserving customers from South Asia, the Middle East and further afield.
Immigration police said Iqbal was affiliated with a shadowy Iranian masterforger known as ‘The Doctor’ who sold ‘Triple A’ quality passports torefugees, economic migrants and criminals from a Bangkok suburb for nearly20 years.
Detectives hailed his 2016 arrest as a major breakthrough in the fightagainst passport crime — although other forgers have taken his place.
Transient, vast and permissive, Bangkok has for long provided sanctuary forpeople wanting to disappear or re-invent.
Thailand welcomes visa-free travel to many countries and is SoutheastAsia’s best-connected transport hub, sharing long, ungovernable borderswith Myanmar, Laos and Cambodia.
That draws transnational criminals moving everything from people and rarewildlife to drugs, weapons and gems.