hundreds of fake passports and visas, a senior police official said Sunday. Mohammed Karim, 56, was arrested in a rented house in Bangkok by police investigating a gang of foreign counterfeiters.
They found 90 real passports, 577 fake U.S. and European passports, 680 counterfeit visas and 1,680 fake passport photo pages, mostly for American passports, said police Lieutenant Colonel Sophon Sarapat.
“Karim confessed and he was charged with conspiring to make counterfeit passports for sale, and making fake visas,” he said after Saturday’s arrest.
One Thai and one Myanmar citizen also alleged to be involved in the global counterfeiting ring escaped, Sophon added.
Karim could face a maximum of 20 years in jail if convicted.
Passport fraud is a common problem in Thailand. At the end of 2006, Thai and U.S. police launched a joint sting operation which netted 500 fake U.S. passports.
A Thai man and a Pakistani man were arrested on that occasion.
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