Thai police bust passport ring run by ‘The Doctor’ sending fake IDs to migrants

Thai police have broken up a major fake passport ring led by an Iranian known as “The Doctor” which sent thousands of passports to Middle Eastern customers trying to enter Europe. Five years of investigation culminated in Monday’s arrest of the alleged Iranian mastermind Hamid Reza Jafary, police said. The 48-year-old had for many years been crafting sophisticated forgeries from his home in Chachoengsao province east of Bangkok, they said. It was not immediately clear if “The Doctor” provided passports to people fleeing to Europe during the current migrant crisis.

He (Jafary) produced passports for people from countries including Iran, Syria and Afghanistan who were escaping wars and wanted to enter Europe.

Lieutenant General Nathathorn Prousoontorn

Clients emailed “The Doctor” their photos and specified the country for which they wanted a passport, the commander said, adding he guaranteed customers they would not be detected by border officials. The forged documents were then sent via private courier companies. Five Pakistani middlemen were also arrested in raids in and around Bangkok for assisting the forgery ring, which allegedly shipped passports to overseas clients for up to 80,000 baht ($2,300). Some of the nearly 200 travel documents found in a Monday raid on Jafary’s home were completely forged, while others had been stolen from tourists and doctored, police said.

He himself used six different passports – three from Brazil, and one from each of Peru, Portugal and New Zealand. He was wanted by security agencies in many countries, especially the EU and Japan.

Lt Gen Nathathorn

Thailand forger