LONDON: A gang operating out of Britain's mosques to sell fake passports to potential terrorists has been smashed by a popular UK tabloid. The crooks were confident that they won't be arrested since any police raids on mosques would inflame racial tension. But after a three-month undercover investigation by the News of The World, cops this week shut the scam down.During the sting operation, the paper observed a Bangladeshi team of fixers tout for business, offering genuine Bulgarian passports doctored with fake IDs for £2,500 among worshippers at the East London Mosque in Whitechapel.
Across the city at the Central Mosque in Regent's Park another crew was peddling the same service. The News of The World crew then met the ringleader posing as zealots on the run from the police. The leader, a 29-year-old Bangladeshi, bragged that he had helped more than 50 illegal immigrants enter the United Kingdom this way, adding: "These are genuine documents. Nobody can challenge you. Just give me your photographs and choose a name, in four weeks you'll have a new identity."
"Because Bulgaria's in the European community you have full rights in this country. You can live here legally, take advantage of the free NHS, everything. And no one can stop you from travelling."
He claimed he had acquired the passports from an official of the Bulgarian ministry of interior.