Over 300 bogus passports seized:

Tiger among five held in Bangkok

Thai authorities have arrested five people including an LTTEer for producing and smuggling more than 300 fake EU passports and other official European documents, officials said yesterday.

They said police have seized from the group more than 300 bogus passports, produced in Thailand but made to look like official documentation from 14 EU countries including Britain, France and Belgium.

The Department of Special Investigation (DSI) said the suspects, all arrested since August 21, were 32-year-old Pakistani man Azad Said Giyani and a 35-year-old Sri Lankan man, known to be a Tiger.

A 43-year-old Thai woman was arrested for assisting them.

A 38-year-old man from Myanmar was arrested on suspicion of producing the passports and a 28-year-old Thai woman is also being held for helping him.

In a statement the DSI said Thai authorities had also picked up a British national, Ahoor Rambarak Fathi, at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport on September 27 this year, carrying 104 stolen genuine passports.

Fathi, travelling under fake Swedish documents, had passports from Britain, Spain, France, Sweden and Russia, that had been smuggled into Thailand.

“He (Fathi) confessed that he had trafficked stolen passports into Thailand more than 20 times,” the statement said.

The DSI said Thailand is a known hub for the trafficking of fake and stolen passports. AFP