PENGKALAN KUBUR, MALAYSIA: Five cases of forged Malaysian passports have been detected in the first quarter of this year despite having 35 security features in the documents.

Immigration director-general Datuk Mahmood Adam said three cases were detected in the Klang Valley and one each in Penang and Terengganu.

In almost all the cases, Mahmood said the department was able to detect the forgery as the culprits were only able to duplicate the surface of the passport and not the security seals.

"We are monitoring the cases and trends to get to the bottom of the matter because Malaysian international passports are very popular with crime syndicates operating in the Asian region," he told reporters after meeting state Immigration directors here yesterday.

Mahmood said one of the reasons Malaysian passports were popular with syndicates was because of the various ethnic groups living in the country, which made it easier for them to insert false pictures into the documents without arousing suspicion.

He promised to investigate whether department personnel were involved in the forgeries.

"We will investigate such allegations to the hilt but so far, based on the latest cases, none of my men has been found to be involved," he added.

Mahmood said his department was also cooperating with other agencies as forgery involved visas or the seamen book used by fishermen to catch fish in Malaysian waters.

He warned that those caught forging such documents could be arrested under the Internal Security Act, Official Secrets Act or Anti-Corruption Act.

-The Star/Asia News Network