Eight arrested in passport scam linked to terrorists
Eight arrested in passport scam linked to terrorists
Special investigators have arrested eight people, including three Thai women, who were allegedly members of two passport forgery rackets with links to the Madrid train bombings in 2004 that killed 191 people.
The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said yesterday that in addition to providing assistance to terrorists groups based in Europe, the two groups also provided fake passports to criminal gangs involved in drugs and human trafficking.
The first suspect to be arrested, Thai national Orawan Limprasert, 31, is a girlfriend of a member of the terrorist group that was responsible for the 2004 train bombings, DSI deputy director-general Dusaddee Arayawuth said at a press conference yesterday.
Quoting Orawan, he said her racket’s clients were mainly male travellers aged between 2535. The group forged passports stolen from holders based in Europe or those with EU granted permits to travel in many European countries. “The passports forged by this group of suspects, which are sold at US$10,000 [Bt330,000] apiece, are difficult to verify whether they are real or fake,” he said.
The DSI is investigating further whether passports were stolen from holders, or they were sold or given by holders to the racketeers.
At the request of Italian and Spanish police and other authorities, who provided tip offs that document forgery rackets in Europe had links to Orawan’s ring, the DSI spent seven months to compile intelligence and evidence, after taking over the case from police in April, before it arrested her on Wednesday.
DSI agents found 40 fake British passports in Orawan’s possession. Five others were arrested after her confession, and 300 documents were seized, issued by authorities mostly in France and Belgium.
The five members in this racket are Thai nationals Naowarat Khiyani 43, and Wilaiphorn Naebkaew, 28, Pakistani Assad Said Geeyani, 33, a Rohingya man known as Awaeh, 38, or Thai name of Kaew, and Ponnooturai Sitzabezan, 35, whose nationality is not known, and who was allegedly a member of the Sri Lankan Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE).
Dusaddee did not provide details about past or present links between this racket and the LTTE, nor its roles with Europe-based terrorist groups. Two senior security officials from Italy and Spain were present at the DSI press conference yesterday but they did not make any statements about terrorism related links this racket had with local cells in their countries.
The DSI, in coordination with the immigration police, also arrested two foreigners, who were allegedly smuggling and selling authentic passports issued by authorities in many countries.
The suspects are British national Ahoor Rambarak Fath, 45, and Swedish woman Masobukwe Moiseng Patricia Segage, 45, said Dusadee, who claimed they had confessed to the crimes, which they allegedly committed more than 20 times. Authorities found 104 authentic passports issued in Britain, Spain, France, Sweden, Israel, Russia and Norway with them.
