The Immigration Department of Malaysia has arrested an expatriate Bangladeshi on suspicion of being the mastermind behind the syndicate of fake passports.
The arrestee is identified as Apu Bhai, 38. A Philipino citizen was also arrested at that time.
They were arrested in a raid in the Kajang area of the country's capital, Kuala Lumpur on last Friday.
Malaysian media published the news on Monday.
Malaysian media reported that a syndicate of Bangladeshi and Filipino expatriates had been involved in passport tampering for two years.
They tear off the first page of the expired passports of the expats and renew them. The syndicate charges 1,000 to 1,500 ringgit per person for issuing fake passports.
These fake passports are mainly used to obtain foreign workers medical examination and monitoring agency clearance.
The news published in the media also informed that the visa of the detained Apu Bhai and the Philippine citizen had expired long ago. They were living in Malaysia illegally.
A computer and 211 expired passports were recovered from their possession during the detention. A total of 199 of them were Bangladeshi passports.
