Police arrested four Chinese nationals in what is apparently the most sophisticated counterfeit ring for passport and alien registration cards to be uncovered in this country.
The forgeries were sold in sets to Chinese and South Koreans residing illegally in Japan, the police said.
Investigators said the work is so good, it was almost impossible to differentiate from the real thing.
Officials of Tokyo's Metropolitan Police Department and the Shizuoka prefectural police said Thursday that a Chinese group, including the four persons arrested, sold counterfeit ID to about 7,500 Chinese and Koreans in Japan over the past five years. The group raked in an estimated 300 million yen from the enterprise, the largest uncovered to date, the police said.
Among those arrested was Zhao Taifeng, 31, a resident of Chiba.
Tokyo police made the arrests based on suspicions that Zhao's group created fake alien registration cards, work qualification certificates and other documents for two Chinese women in December 2008 and May this year.
According to a senior investigator, holograms used on the fake ID were as good as those used on cards issued by the authorities. The holograms change color in the light just like the real ones, which were added to prevent counterfeiting.
Police also arrested a fifth Chinese man, Wang Changping, 33, a resident of Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, believed to be the ringleader.
Wang was arrested on suspicion of illegally overstaying in Japan. Police also arrested 24 others, many of them Koreans and Chinese, who allegedly purchased counterfeit IDs.
Police suspect the Chinese group sold sets that included a fake passport, alien registration card and work qualification certificate for 40,000 yen each. A forged driver's license cost about 30,000 yen.
They were sold through Chinese and Korean brokers.
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