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Identity manufacturing syndicate snared
Police allege they have identified a fraudulent identity manufacturing operation in Sydney which had created thousands of fake identification cards, including licences, Medicare cards and credit cards.
The operation began when Australian Customs and Border Protection Service (ACBPS) officers detected 5000 NSW driver licence holograms after they arrived concealed in a package from China, according to a media release from the NSW Police.
Some of those cards had been used to commit fraud offences against financial institutions across Sydney. Police will also allege that false identification was used by one person to board a domestic flight.
Early yesterday (Wednesday 25 February 2015), officers executed search warrants at homes in Canley Vale, Rockdale and Lakemba. Four people have been arrested and a fraudulent identification manufacturing operation has been shut down following a joint-agency investigation by the Identity Security Strike Team. NSW Police Force Fraud and Cybercrime Squad Commander, Detective Superintendent Arthur Katsogiannis, said this was another successful multi-agency investigation into an organised criminal syndicate involved in what police would allege was a highly sophisticated operation into the high level manufacturing of fake identification cards and other documentation.
The Identity Security Strike Team (ISST) is a multi-jurisdictional initiative between the NSW Police Force, the Australian Federal Police (AFP), and the Department of Immigration and Border Protection. It investigates high level, complex identity fraud and related security matters under both Commonwealth and State legislation.
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