Thai Police Find Fake French, Nz Passports

[george]

Thai police find fake French, NZ passports

BANGKOK: -- New Zealand embassy officials in Bangkok were investigating reports that Thai police found 11 fake Kiwi passports with possible al-Qaeda links.

The discovery of the documents followed the detention a month ago of a Pakistan national who when arrested was found with a dozen fake New Zealand passports, the Bangkok Post newspaper reported.

On Monday night, Thai police arrested a Thai man and a Pakistani man for allegedly producing forged passports which might have been used by al-Qaeda-linked terrorist suspects arrested in Europe, the newspaper said.

The two men were arrested with 23 fake passports, including "11 fake passports being passed off as New Zealand documents and 10 as French".

The two men, named as Decha Kaeoprakhong, 31, and Mohammad Iqbal, 36, were arrested in an area of Bangkok frequented by overseas Muslims visiting Thailand.

All the passports bore serial numbers starting with key numbers that enabled the holder to travel to many countries without requiring a visa.

Crime Suppression Division Commander, Kosin Hinthao, told reporters that New Zealand police had identified the passport identification numbers as similar to those used by human traffickers and al-Qaeda terrorists in Europe.

"Many terrorists arrested earlier in Europe had travelled to several nations carrying fake passports with such serial numbers," Kosin said.

New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade media adviser Jonathan Schwass said the NZ embassy in Bangkok was aware of the story.

A police officer attached to the embassy had been involved with the matter.

Schwass said he was unsure about the accuracy of the newspaper report.

The office of Internal Affairs Minister George Hawkins, whose department issues passports, said he was aware of the report.

Both men arrested by Thai police on Monday have denied the charges despite the arrests taking place as part of a sting operation when the men were allegedly seeking to sell the passports to undercover Thai police officers.

Thailand has increased efforts to crack down on the production of fake passports in the country, especially after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States led to increased attention to travel document security.

In early 2002, more than 40 foreigners were arrested in raids on two dozen locations in Bangkok linked with the production and sale of forged passports.

--theage.com.au 2004-04-28

[Foggy Bottom]

LOL - Forum front page displays this topic as "Thai police find fake French"

Thought it was a story about a new style of Pat Pong scam

[mouse]

As a security measure Michelonia will immediately begin issuing vitual Passports only.

http://www.michelonia.com

[george]

Crooked website sells NZ passports

Internal Affairs is moving to shut down a website offering New Zealand passports for sale illegally.

The website, discovered by the Herald yesterday, offers original passports from Australia and New Zealand for "the best prices on the net" among a selection of international documents.

Discussion on the website included questions over whether photos could be replaced and names changed.

Police said they would monitor the website to see if any passports were sold. But an Internal Affairs spokesman said it would contact the website's country of origin to have it shut down.

Meanwhile, police have refused to comment on claims of a link to al Qaeda terrorists following the seizure of fake New Zealand passports in Thailand.

However, Thailand's ambassador to New Zealand, Norachit Sinhaseni, said a statement from Thai police which claimed that their counterparts at the New Zealand Embassy had told them that passports with the same serial number were linked to a human trafficking syndicate and al Qaeda terrorists in Europe.

The head of New Zealand police counter-terrorism operations, Assistant Commissioner Jon White, told the Herald yesterday that comments by the Thai police were made without consultation with New Zealand police.

A Thai man and a Pakistani man have been arrested in connection with the fake passports. Among 23 fake documents seized in Thailand were 11 fake New Zealand passports with serial numbers beginning with N379. Police believe there are likely to be more.

Internal Affairs passport manager David Philp said for reassurance, New Zealanders with that series of numbers could get a replacement passport issued at no cost.

He said the department had already issued replacement passports after recent investigations found fake passports were being produced with those numbers.

The arrests come amid ongoing Thai and New Zealand police operations to stamp out the sale of fake New Zealand passports in Bangkok, a city notorious for the sale of counterfeit passports.

In February, Thai police arrested a German and a French man attempting to smuggle more than 400 fake European passports out of Bangkok airport.

In a similar security scare in March last year a man with al Qaeda links was arrested in Namibia with a New Zealand passport stolen from Bangkok.

New Zealand's police liaison officer in Bangkok, Detective Inspector Mike Bush, who worked with Thai police on the latest operation, said they were working hard to prevent fake New Zealand passports being available on the black market because of the potential for them to be used by terrorists.

"It ups the ante in respect of our investigations," he said.

Border authorities had been alerted to the false passports and they were not sophisticated enough to fool controls in countries where passport reading systems were used.

New Zealand is reviewing its security amid publicity of stolen passports and the case involving two Israeli men arrested here for fraudulently trying to obtain New Zealand passports.

New information is likely to be stored on passports after October.

Microchips will carry "biometric" information (biological and statistical data combined), a replicated digital photo and other identification marks which can be confirmed against the printed photo and other details.

Some New Zealand overseas diplomatic posts which have previously issued passports that cannot be read by machines are now restricting these to limited-duration documents for emergency cases only.

Passport controls

NZ passport security features include:

* Passport number embossed into top of each page.

* Identification photo printed seamlessly into inside cover, cannot be removed or replaced manually.

* Watermarks on pages.

* Other features readable by ultra-violet light - Internal Affairs Department will not for security reasons disclose details of these.

* Extra feature on the 97 per cent of NZ passports which are "machine-readable" - numbered computer code containing basic information for border officials to check against printed details of identity, date of birth, etc.