KEY POINTS:
Four New Zealand passports have been seized in Thailand in one of the biggest anti-counterfeiting operations in recent years.
Mohammed Karim, a 56-year-old from Bangladesh, was arrested in a Bangkok property on Saturday, where police found a sophisticated passport-making operation, and more than 1000 finished and unfinished documents, Reuters reported.
The passports were both Asian and Western, from countries including New Zealand, the United States, France, Japan, Singapore, Malaysia and Malta.
Police also seized two computers a scanner, three printers and rubber stamps for several countries.
Karim's partner, a Myanmar national, escaped arrest, police Major-General Chaktip Chaichinda said.
The passports were sold to a group of Thai and Burmese middlemen who then sold them to gangs engaged in prostitution, terrorism and smuggling, he said. Chaktip said Karim made about $12,670 a month selling the documents.
If convicted, Karim faces up to 20 years in jail.
Passport fraud is a common problem in Thailand, where police seized 100 fake documents last year.
Internal Affairs spokesman Tony Wallace told the Dominion Post the four New Zealand documents included two officially issued passports that had been reported lost or stolen.
Biographical information on the other two had been altered.
Mr Wallace said it was highly unlikely the two fake passports could have been used.
With new coded security features, introduced in 2005 and now built in to New Zealand passports, the ability to use fake documents was "next to non-existent".
- NZPA
