Suspected forger nabbed in Thailand carrying Israeli passports

Two Israeli passports were found in the possession of a Pakistani documents forger arrested in Bangkok on Friday as part of a crackdown on an Iranian-led international passport forgery ring.

Police told the Bangkok Post that most of the counterfeit passports were sold to Middle Eastern customers for journeys to Europe and Australia.

Mahammad Rumzan, 57, was nicknamed “Johnny Painter” for his skills in stitching together fake passport books, the Bangkok Post reported.

Rumzan was arested on April 8 while delivering passports, and a police search of his bag turned up two Israeli passports and four French ones, the paper reported. All six passports were real and had been reported missing, according to the report.

Searches of Rumzan’s two apartments turned up 40 fake passports, mainly for European countries, along with 91 visa stamps, 92 counterfeit travelers’ cheques worth the Thai equivalent of $770, 20 watermark blocks, stitching thread, passport laminates, embossing equipment and biodata pages taken from genuine passports, according to the paper.

Rumzan is suspected of being the sixth member of a syndicate headed by a Bangkok-based Iranian, Hamid Reza Jafary, who was arrested last month.

Jafary, 48, nicknamed “The Doctor,” was nabbed after police linked him to a pizza delivery, the Bangkok Post said. He had managed to evade capture for years, operating from a front company supposedly selling secondhand computers and juggling five forged passports to disguise his real identity.

Jafary had learned his skill from his late father, police said.

“He (Jafary) produced passports for people from countries including Iran, Syria and Afghanistan who were escaping wars and wanted to enter Europe,” according to immigration police commander Lieutenant General Nathathorn Prousoontorn.

“The Doctor” confessed to the crime and could face a decade in jail if convicted, he added.

Clients emailed the Iranian forger their photos and specified the country for which they wanted a passport, the commander said, adding that Jafary guaranteed his top-quality counterfeits would not be detected by border officials.

In January, two Iranian nationals were nabbed at an airport in India after trying to board a flight with fake Israeli passports, apparently intending to use the documents to immigrate to the US.

In 2014, two Iranians were arrested at the airport in Nairobi, Kenya, after attempting to enter the country using counterfeit Israeli passports. They were sentenced under anti-terrorism laws to two years in prison and ordered to pay a large fine.

Thailand has long been a hub for a forged document industry serving human traffickers and other criminals.

Times of Israel staff and AFP contributed to this report.