IPOH, Jan 23 — The police have crippled a syndicate which specialised in forging government documents over the past year, with the arrest of five people including a teacher.

The suspects, allegedly belonging to a group dubbed ‘Geng Tuah’ were picked up in three raids between Jan 20 and 22.

Perak CID (Commercial) chief, Datuk Gan Tian Kee said the syndicate was believed to have falsified identity cards, driving licences, road tax and car grants for cloned or stolen cars in the state.

"Based on information and intelligence gathered over a month, a team of policemen conducted a raid at a house in Taman Maju Rapat Ipoh about 4.30pm last Friday.

"In the raid, the police nabbed a 43-year-old man believed to be the group leader, and found various equipment meant to falsify documents.  

"The suspect had been detained twice for similar offences in the past,” he told reporters here today. Based on information gathered in the first raid, Gan said the police detained another 43-year-old man using the honourific title ‘Dato Seri Panglima Diraja’ the same day.

From this suspect, the police seized three luxury cars suspected to have been cloned, namely a Mercedes Benz S280, BMW 525 and Toyota Alphard.

According to Gan, the third raid yesterday led to the arrest of a married couple, both aged 37, at Pokok Asam in Taiping.

He said the police also seized 66 unprinted road tax stickers, 202 pieces of driving licence cards, 22 pieces of identification cards and a government hospital medical certificate book.

He warned the remaining members of the syndicate still at large to surrender as the police had identified them.

Gan also advised ‘clients’ of the syndicate to surrender before the police nabbed and charged them as accomplices. — Bernama