Ruslin said a special operation was conducted in Chow Kit, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday morning based on intelligence gathered over two weeks.

“The team apprehended a 24-year-old foreign national in front of a hotel. Following an interrogation, they went to a hotel room used by the suspect as a base.

“They found a valid student pass used to deceive the authorities while forging documents,” he said in a statement.

Ruslin said the team seized a laptop, a printer, 37 suspected fake Bangladeshi passports, two suspected fake Indian passports, six suspected fake Indonesian passports, passport covers for various nationalities, and equipment used to produce fake documents, among others.

He said the syndicate’s members operated individually, offering fake passport services to individuals from Bangladesh, Nepal, India and Indonesia without travel documents.

The syndicate, suspected to have been operating for the last three months, charged RM100 to RM150 per passport and was believed to have produced 50 to 100 passports daily.

He said the fake passports were also used for Fomema check-ups for foreign workers.