Thai authorities have arrested "The Doctor," an Iranian allegedly leading a ring which sold fake passports out of his base in a province east of Bangkok.
The police said Hamid Reza Jafary and his gang of five Pakistani suspects were arrested on Monday. Jafary is wanted in several countries, including Thailand, Britain, France, New Zealand and Australia, the Bangkok Post reported.
The group is suspected of selling forged passports mostly to customers from Iran, Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan, to be used to enter countries in Europe and Australia, and is the largest such ring to be busted in the last few years, immigration bureau chief Nathathorn Prousoontorn told reporters.
Police discovered equipment at Jafary's home such as stamping machines, and other devices used for sewing and engraving paper. They also found 173 finished passports.
Jafary reportedly confessed to his crimes, and said he charged about 50,000 - 80,000 baht ($1,415 - $2,264) per passport. Customers ordered the documents via the Internet, and transferred money to the ring's bank accounts, before the bogus passports were sent by courier over to them.
Thailand has been a hotbed for passport forgers, and the country has busted several rings in recent years. In March 2015, authorities busted what they called one of the largest networks in the country that had been operating for more than a decade, the Associated Press reported.
The ring was led by an Iranian man named Murel Gurat, and he was apprehended with a haul of 1,053 stolen passports from some 60 nationalities, mostly European.
Just a month later, a Pakistani forger suspected of leading an international passport forgery network was arrested in Bangkok. Police raided Abdul Ganni's home, after authorities suspected he was supplying fake passports to the mafia and Al-Qaeda's terrorist network, said the Bangkok Post.