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Last Updated : 2024-05-19 23:42:00
20 December 2023 06:53 pm - 5 - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}
A major forged visa printing racket for European and Asian countries was busted by the Police Special Task Force (STF) in Kurunegala today and two operatives were nabbed, whilst the mastermind of the racket is still absconding, the police said.
Officials from the STF Special Raiding Unit from the STF Headquarters in Colombo on information raided a house in Pannala yesterday morning and arrested two young men aged 32 and 22 years, who were siblings.
A senior official attached to the STF told the Daily Mirror the two young men were operating the bogus visa printing agency in one of the rooms in their house and that they had been carrying it out for the past three years.
The sleuths found a laptop computer, a printer, printing material and specialized ink used to print foreign visa stickers along with already printed forged visas and about 20 genuine Sri Lankan passports from the crime scene.
According to suspects, they had been receiving Rs.75, 000 to Rs.100, 000 to print a forged visa to any country and the police suspect a mastermind is there to link the suspects and clients.
A senior official of the Department of Immigration and Emigration told the Daily Mirror a special team was sent to the crime scene to assist the STF personnel in examining the genuine and forged travel documents and visas.The immigration department during the last couple of years seized a number of forged visas for numerous foreign countries pasted on genuine Sri Lankan passports when local individuals tried to leave the country at the BIA.
The arrested suspects were to be handed over to the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) last night.
Don Keys Wednesday, 20 December 2023 07:57 PM
Can someone please explain to me how a fake visa can gain a person entry into a country ? Unless you have Meeharak operating the computers at immigration, even a cursory computer check will reveal the visa as a fraud. In Australia, the passport is embedded with a tamper proof chip. Someone please put me out of my misery by explaining how this could possibly work.
Ram Thursday, 21 December 2023 03:41 AM
Visa racket must have been happening with the blessings of the local politicians, who I believe would have received their share. A very powerful rogue politico is in Kurunegala
janaka Thursday, 21 December 2023 06:25 AM
I see jhonny somehow somewhere behind the scenes
Sokrates Thursday, 21 December 2023 09:32 AM
Why don't embassies have online databases accessible to the Department of Immigration and Emigration? During the passport control at the airport, the system would have to immediately report that no visa was issued for the person being checked. After all, these countries don't want any illegal immigrants. Ultimately, it is the responsibility of these countries to do everything possible to avoid illegal immigration and not shift responsibility to Sri Lanka.
Cherath Thursday, 21 December 2023 10:03 AM
Socrates - I quite agree with you. The Embassies and High Commissions in SL should flag up details confidentially to the Dept of Immigration
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