KUALA LUMPUR (AP) - Malaysian police busted a major counterfeit money syndicate and arrested 34 people, mostly foreigners, in dozens of raids, a police official said Thursday.
Police seized six suitcases filled with fake U.S. dollars, Malaysian ringgit and British pound sterling notes in the massive operation earlier in the week, said the official who declined to be named because he is not authorized to make public statements.
He said police had not yet counted the money because there were so many bundles. Police also arrested 29 Africans, mostly from Nigeria, two Malaysians, two Indonesians and a Filipino, the official said.
The official said police had been investigating the syndicate for two years.
The suspects are believed to have been involved in several scams, such as lotteries and sales of nonexistent properties, cheating locals and foreigners, he said. Some of them were also involved in prostitution, he said.
On Monday, the team of almost 400 police officers from various divisions raided 38 premises in and around Malaysia's largest city, Kuala Lumpur.
They also seized a car, 15,000 ringgit (US$4,400; ?3,300) and equipment _ believed to have been used to make the counterfeit notes _ and hundreds of bottles of a fake cattle vaccine, diluted with soya sauce, apparently for sale for veterinary use.
Some of the detained foreigners had entered Malaysia on student visas or under United Nations High Commission for Refugees documents, the official said.
UNHCR spokeswoman Yante Ismail said the commission could not yet confirm this but would investigate whether the suspects' UNHCR cards were genuine.