Summary Police conducted a two-week surveillance before detaining Seyed Ramin Miraziz Paknejad and his wife.
KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysia police said Wednesday that they have arrested an Iranian man accused of running a passport forging syndicate and believed to have ties with terrorist and human trafficking groups.
Fuzi Harun, who heads the federal police anti-terrorism taskforce, said police conducted a two-week surveillance before detaining Seyed Ramin Miraziz Paknejad and his wife on Saturday.
Fuzi said Paknejad, 45, was first detained in Thailand last year on suspicion of providing fake passports to human trafficking and drug rings, as well as terrorists who plotted bombings in Bangkok. He said the Iranian jumped bail and believed to have fled to Malaysia in June using a fake Turkish passport.
Investigations indicated that Paknejad was also the suspected leader of a syndicate responsible for trafficking in thousands of people from different countries through the Middle East, Europe, Australia and Canada, he said.
The syndicate has allegedly been operating in Thailand for five years, selling more than 3,000 counterfeit travel and identification documents and raking in profits of more than nine million ringgit ($2.77 million), he said.
Malaysian police are working closely with their Thai counterparts to investigate his ties to terrorist groups and checking his financial trails, Fuzi added.
In February last year, two Iranian men were detained after an apparent botched terror plot in Bangkok that allegedly targeted Israeli diplomats. Another Iranian suspect fled to Malaysia but was also held and currently appealing an extradition order to Thailand.
