22,000 counterfeit passports seized in Thailand

Counterterrorism Blog:

Today Thai authorities announced arrests in an enormous counterfeit passport ring. 12 people were arrested and some 20,000 fake passports were seized. It was the second such arrest in the past month.

The 12-person gang, included Thais, Burmese, and Indonesians. The 20,000 passports were from a diverse group of countries: Burma, Brunei, Canada, France, Germany, Malaysia, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Thai police reported that 2,000 of the passports were ready to be used.

The ringleader of the cell, Somkhuan Muen-in, had nearly 10-year career in document forging, people and arms smuggling. Police assert that he had smuggled arms for the Tamil Tigers in 2003.

...

A smaller ring was busted in Thailand a couple of seeks ago. Thailand has been a center for passport counterfeits for several years. Arrest were made in 2005 and 2006. One of those arrested then was tied to the 7-7 UK bombers. The country known as the Disneyland of sex has apparently become the go to place for fake IDs.

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