Saturday June 28, 2008

Group forging govt documents crippled

KUALA LUMPUR: A syndicate forging government documents to impersonate and then extort unsuspecting victims has been busted following the arrest of 15 people.

Its members, including two policemen from Bukit Aman and four women, were arrested in the Klang Valley during a special operation.

Federal Commercial Crimes Investigations Department director Comm Datuk Koh Hong Sun said police also seized a set of police uniform and other police paraphernalia, including two pairs of handcuffs and a walkie-talkie from the syndicate members who were aged between 20 and 58 years.

Costume parade: Comm Koh (right) and ACP Wan Zainnudin inspecting a seized police uniform and other items including forged police authority cards (inset) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

“Also seized were forged police, army and Immigration authority cards as well as several equipments and items used to produce the documents.

“The members, who are mostly odd-job workers have been forging government documents to extort locals and foreigners,'' he told a press conference at his office in Bukit Perdana here yesterday.

It is learnt that all of them have been remanded until today to facilitate investigations.

Comm Koh said that the four men, whose pictures were on the fake authority cards and photo frames seized during the raid on June 24, have also been arrested.

He said that police have not ruled out arresting several more suspects.

He declined to reveal or comment on the number of cases the syndicate members had been alleged to have been involved or if the mastermind was among those arrested.