Thais pursue Pakistani connection in fake passport business

In February, Spanish police arrested 13 foreigners, 12 of them from Pakistan, in Barcelona and Valencia on charges of running an international ring engaged in falsifying and selling stolen passports.

In April, Belgian police detained the suspected leader of the gang, a Pakistani named Marc Ghulam Farid.

The gang was believed to have bought passports stolen from tourists in Spain and sent them to Thailand for falsification so they could be sold to criminals, and perhaps terrorists, operating in Europe.

One of the Pakistanis arrested, Atiq Ur Rehman, was married to Thai national Orawan Limprasert, 35, who was arrested in Bangkok last month on charges of dealing in false passports after a joint investigation by Spanish and Thai police.

Spanish police told their Thai counterparts that Rehman was suspected of having sold fake passports to terrorists involved in the Madrid train bombing of 2004, which killed 191 people.

"They said he was not directly involved in the Madrid train blasts but has just supplied the passports to the terrorists," said Department of Special Investigation Police Colonel Surasak Na Lampang, who was assigned to the case.

Rehman allegedly sent stolen passports to his wife in Bangkok, who took them to a gang specializing in falsifying documents and then sent them back to Spain to be sold for about 10,000 dollars each.

"We think they were just in it for the money," Surasak said. "The false passports were supplied not only to terrorists but to criminals."


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