JOHOR BARU: The Immigration Department has busted a foreign worker supply syndicate allegedly masterminded by two Bangladeshi men, seizing hundreds of payslips and over RM776,000 in cash.
Johor Immigration director Datuk Mohd Rusdi Mohd Darus said the operation was carried out at three locations on Tuesday (Aug 11) following two months of intelligence gathering.
“The two Bangladeshi suspects were believed to be the syndicate’s main operators, who allegedly misused temporary employment visit passes to supply foreign workers to factories around Johor Baru.
“We also detained another Bangladeshi man and a Myanmar national believed to be acting as supervisors in the syndicate,” he said in a statement on Wednesday.
He said during the raids, department officials found 119 foreign workers of various nationalities crammed into a house in hot and congested conditions while waiting for the syndicate members to distribute their wages.
Mohd Rusdi added that they also found 450 workers’ salary slips attached to envelopes containing a total of RM776,614, two laptops, a Nepalese passport, two money-counting machines, a bank cheque book and a sport utility vehicle.
He said the male and female suspects, aged 20 to 49 years old, came from India, Indonesia, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.
He said all those detained are being remanded for 14 days to facilitate investigations under the Immigration Act 1959/63 and the Passports Act 1966.
“The department will continue cracking down on illegal agents and syndicates exploiting the recruitment and placement of foreign workers in Johor,” he added.
