JEDDAH, 24 December — Passport officials have busted a large forgery ring specializing in official seals, visas and other documents needed by foreign laborers who aim to illegally enter the Kingdom. The officials also seized 600 signed documents that needed to be filled out by those paying iqama fees.
The gang leader, an Asian identified only as "Kutty", was arrested.
The investigators, under the command of Col. Mohsin Al-Adwani, director of the forgery wing of the department, discovered at Kutty’s house cleverly-forged seals of a notary public in Jeddah, the visa section and the passports division at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ branch in Makkah province, and a seal of Riyad Bank.
They also discovered 18 passports issued from several Arab and Asian countries, two forged iqamas (residence permits), and a number of documents prepared in sealed letter heads of private companies ready to be send to government departments requesting for permission to recruit foreign labor.
The seized documents also included 300 letters in the name of labor recruitment agents in the Kingdom authorizing labor suppliers in foreign countries to complete the formalities for the entry of foreign workers to the Kingdom illegally.
The preliminary inquiries also revealed that Kutty, who was a house driver at Kilo 2 in South Jeddah, turned to forgery because of the quick and substantial profit he could make, according Al-Adwani.
Brig. Salim Al-Belaihid, director of the Passports Department in the Makkah province, said the investigators arrested Kutty after a month’s secret observation of his operations and his accomplices’ methods of distributing and selling the forged documents.
When the officials raided the house, the arrested man attempted to hide the seals inside a wall clock. Other documents were stored in secret drawers under a bed, Al-Belaihid said.
The arrested man will be handed over to concerned legal authorities after preliminary inquiries are completed, the director said.
Burglars arrested: Police have arrested three members of a gang of burglars which broke into a gold shop and stole jewelry in Sabya city in the southern province of Jizan, Okaz reported yesterday.
The thieves hid the gold in several pillow cases at the home of one of the gang members before making their escape. However, the police tracked down the culprits within an hour of the burglary.
