PETALING JAYA, March 9 — The Immigration Department foiled a passport forgery syndicate, which was operated locally by foreigners, following arrests of four men at the KL International Airport (KLIA) on Sunday.

The arrests were made following checks conducted on travellers' documents randomly at the airport and also based on investigations and intelligence gathered by the department's enforcement division.

During the checks, officers singled out two Sri Lankan men, who then had their documents scrutinised.

Immigration Department's director-general Datuk Sakib Kusmi said the two men, who were supposed to board a KLM Royal Dutch Airlines flight to Amsterdam, had produced Malaysian passports when they were questioned by officers.

“Suspecting the passports were fake, officials then checked through the belongings of the men and discovered their Sri Lankan passports,” he said.

Investigations revealed the men had overstayed and were also in possession of travel documents not belonging to them.

Sakib said interrogations on the suspects led officers to a lot on the fifth floor of KLIA, where two more Sri Lankan men were picked up.

“We believe they were working as agents for the syndicate which targeted foreigners in the country.

“The agents, who were in the country without proper documents, were believed to be working with foreign criminal counterparts from an office within KLIA,” he said.

“We believe these four arrests would lead us to the syndicate's ringleader, while we work towards putting a stop to cross-border criminal activities,” he said. 

On February 25, two Immigration officers were arrested as they were alleged to have been directly involved in the sale of Malaysian passports and human trafficking.

The officers, who were allegedly working with an international human trafficking syndicate based in China, charged RM44,000 for each Malaysian passports.

The officers were arrested with seven other people, including three China nationals.