February 19, 2016
Police in Thailand say they have nabbed an Iranian known as “The Doctor,” whom they accuse of forging high quality passports used by Middle Easterners and South Asians to enter Europe and Australia.
The Nation, a Bangkok-based newspaper, reports that Hamid-Reza Jafary, 48, confessed to supplying counterfeit passports to human-trafficking gangs and other international clients via the Internet for as much as $2,250 each.
A long-term Thailand resident, Jafary was arrested last Monday at a house in central Thailand, where police found tools reportedly used for forgery as well as 173 fake passports, most for European nationalities.
Immigration Police Chief Natthorn Phrosunthorn gave a press conference, attended by officials from the UK, French, New Zealand and Australian embassies.
The Iranian — working with five Pakistani accomplices, who were also arrested — was allegedly able to produce and distribute sophisticated forgeries that were difficult to detect with the naked eye, the police chief said. Jafary was not able to forge the more modern passports with embedded chips that many countries have shifted to.