400 cops raid 39 locations to disable passport forgery ring run by Middle Eastern men in Montreal and Toronto

By Salim Jiwa

MONTREAL – 400 police officer have pounced on a major ring which was forging passports, documents and credit cards.

They raided 39 businesses, homes and day care centres to dismantle fully equipped labs that forged Canadian passports, credit cards and documents as well as U.S. documents including permanent resident cards.

The tentacles of the organization reached into Montréal, Laval, Blainville, and in the Toronto are with 32 individuals runniing five document manufacturing labs, RCMP said as they continued to pounce on suspects in Project C-DEVANCER.

Among those cops present were RCMP Integrated National Security Enforcement team which has cracked down on how passports are issued and forged following the entry in 1999 into the U.S. by Montrealer Ahmed Ressam who was carrying a legitimate Canadian passport under the name Benni Antoine Norris.

Had he not been stopped at the U.S. border with hidden explosives, he would have executed his plan to blow up Los Angeles International Airport as part of Jihad on behalf of the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria.

Most of those charged are men of Middle Eastern descent, some are South Asia, possibly from Sri Lanka. Several are residents of Toronto, Markham and Scarborough.

“This morning, over 400 police officers of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Sûreté du Québec, (SQ) and Montréal Police Service conducted a major police operation against a forgery and fraud network specialized in forging documents and passports,” said a police spokesman.

“Thirty-nine searches were carried out in businesses, residences, vehicles, and three day care centres in Montréal. A total of five forgery labs were dismantled and 32 individuals were charged,” RCMP said.

“The purpose of the operation, called Project C-DEVANCER, was to render inoperative an active criminal network engaged in document forgery, maintain Canada’s economic integrity and ensure the safety and security of the public,”

The investigation leading to these searches in Montréal, Laval, Blainville, and in the Toronto area established links between 32 suspects at various levels of the organization, said police.

It is alleged that the members of this network set up a two-pronged structure.

One arm of the ring manufactured false credit cards, documents, driving licences from various Canadian provinces. They also operated on U.S. documentation including permanent resident cards, health insurance cards, and social security numbers.

“It is alleged that this group stole identities to make documents and credit cards. The false credit cards were then disposed of through dealers and intermediate clients, and used to purchase goods or make fraudulent withdrawals,” police said.

The second part of this multi-tentacled group altered passports which pose a direct threat to the security of Canada.

“The investigation also indicates that a second group of individuals involved in this network specialized in the production and sale of counterfeit passports,” said a press statement from RCMP headquarters in Ottawa.

“The passports were obtained through various means before they were altered by the members of this group. The individuals involved each had their own specialty and played a specific role in the passport forging activity. The members of this second group resided in Montréal and the Toronto area.”

In the course of the investigation, the officers uncovered various locations housing forgery labs in Montréal.

The forgery labs dismantled included labs on Côte-de-Liesse Boulevard in Montréal in 2006, on Basile-Patenaude Street in Montréal in 2008, and on du Verger Street in Laval in June 2009.

“During this last search, officers seized 1,500 white cards, close to 500 false non-embossed credit cards, approximately 100 credit cards ready to be distributed and a series of stolen credit cards numbers,” said the statement.

“Today a forgery lab was uncovered in a facility-based childcare centre in Rivière-des-Prairies and a second one on Rosemont Blvd in Montréal,” police added.

Since infrastructures enabling the production of false IDs and passports were discovered, the investigation was conducted by the Integrated National Security Enforcement Team (INSET).
The investigation continues and more arrests could be made.

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