PUTRAJAYA: Seven raids on the same day led to a bust of agents offering fake visa extensions and more than 100 passports seized.
The Immigration Department arrested four Malaysians of which two were found to be leading the syndicate and two Chinese nationals suspected to be syndicate members.
The raided premises were located in Cheras, Mid Valley City, Desa Pandan, Taman Midah, Sungai Besi, Sepang and Bandar Enstek, Immigration director-general Datuk Ruslin Jusoh told a press conference today (Monday, Aug 19).
“All detained were aged between 33 and 53 years old. Checks showed that all foreigners detained did not have valid travel documents,” he said, adding that the raids were conducted on Aug 15 after a two-week investigation.
During the raids, two foreigners from China and the Philippines thought to be customers were also caught.
A total of 107 passports were seized of which 100 were Chinese passports. One was found to be from the Dominican Republic.
“We will trace the owners and some have been found to have expired entry passes. For the record handing over your passports to another party is also an offense,” he said.
Investigations showed that fees for the bogus passes ranged from RM1,200 to over RM15,000, depending on the type of pass.
“All transactions and dealings were done by courier services. It is believed that this group had been active for a month,” he said.
When asked why such syndicates have customers willing to pay, Ruslin said some might have overstayed while others did not want to wait.
Ruslin also said that the Immigration Department had never appointed agents to conduct immigration services such as this.
He added that such services were only around RM100 if done at the department.
