KUALA LUMPUR, May 23 — Two groups known as Ejen 001 and Al Ameen, involved in the abuse and forgery of Immigration documents, were busted in raids by the Immigration Department on Tuesday (May 20).
Its director-general Datuk Zakaria Shaaban said that based on two-week surveillance, his team raided three locations along Jalan Ampang and Jalan Kia Peng at 12.10pm before arresting five Chinese nationals and one Burmese, aged between 28 and 41, and subsequently dismantled the Ejen 001 group.
The operation team seized 23 Chinese passports, one Vanuatu passport, two sets of CPUs, premises stamp, four handphones, two Employment Pass (EP) cards, two sets of Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) application copies, one Chinese travel document, and RM50,000 in cash.
"Preliminary investigations found that the Chinese national is believed to be the main mastermind in offering immigration document-related services to other Chinese nationals in the country, such as applications for Social Visit Passes and Special Passes," he said in a statement today.
Zakaria added that Ejen 001 was operating behind office premises that had been turned into an operations centre to deceive the authorities, while the charges imposed were from RM10,000 to RM15,000 for each service offered, and the operations were believed to have been going on for the past six months.
In the second raid at 5.42pm on three business premises in Jalan Raja Laut, the operation team arrested three Bangladeshi men, aged between 24 and 32 years, who were identified as being involved in the forgery of Immigration documents for the Temporary Employment Visit Pass (ePLKS).
He said the results of public information and intelligence over three weeks found that a group known as "Al Ameen" was involved in the forgery of ePLKS, targeting Bangladeshi nationals who do not have work permits in Malaysia.
"The results of the 'QR Code' check on ePLKS found that the owner is a different individual and there is no information, while this syndicate operates in this illegal activity from mobile phone shops to deceive the authorities and had been operating for six months," Zakaria said, adding that fee charged was RM30 to RM70 for one unit of fake ePLKS.
The operation team seized 18 Bangladeshi passports, one Pakistani passport, three laptops, two printers, a closed-circuit television (CCTV) camera, a Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL) licence, and RM3,446 in cash.
All the individuals who were detained were taken to the Putrajaya Immigration Depot for further investigation, and legal action is to be taken against them under the provisions of the Immigration Act 1959/63, the Passport Act 1966, and the Immigration Regulations 1963 based on their respective offences.
"Additionally, eight local citizens were called to assist with the investigations. The Immigration Department will continue to intensify enforcement to combat any activities involving document abuse and immigration law violations," he said.
— Bernama
