The Islamic State (ISIS) has created an industry out of making fake passports as revealed from the bogus travel documents seized in Iraq, Syria and Libya, French Interior Minister Bernard Cazenueve disclosed.
The French official proposed the formation of a new task force to help stop terrorists attempting to infiltrate Europe using fake papers.
The French official made the proposal during a meeting of interior ministers in Amsterdam. He said the plan will be sent to Greece to assist in the identification of fake or stolen passports, ABC News reported.
"Daesh (ISIS) has managed to seize passports in Iraq, Syria and Libya and to set up a true industry of fake passports,'' he told reporters.
Last year, the U.S intelligence revealed that thousands of blank Syrian passports and at least one passport printing machine have been acquired by the extremist group after taking over government offices in Syria.
In a 17-page report, officials from the Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) said the ISIS has likely been able to print legitimate-looking Syrian passports since at least last summer – and raised the possibility that people using the forged documents have snuck into America.
"Since more than 17 months [have] passed since Raqqa and Deir ez-Zour fell to ISIS, it is possible that individuals from Syria with passports 'issued' in these ISIS-controlled cities or who had passport blanks, may have traveled to the U.S.," the HSI report says, noting that that the primary source for the information was rated at "moderate confidence," the second-highest rating given for source assessments.
"The intelligence community is concerned that they [ISIS] have the ability, the capability to manufacture fraudulent passports, which is a concern in any setting," FBI Director James Comey said during a hearing of lawmakers on the issue.
"If ISIS has been able to acquire legitimate passports or machines that create legitimate passports, this would represent a major security risk in the United States," John Cohen, former HSI official said in December, according to ABC News.
Fake Syrian passports have already been discovered in Europe, most notably two used by suicide bombers in the horrific terrorist attack on Paris in November. The men were believed to have slipped into Europe as part of a flood of Syrian refugees fleeing the violence in their homeland.
According to the source that provided the passport information to HSI, Syria is awash in fake documents "that Syrians do not even view possessing them as illegal.''
"The source stated fake Syrian passports can be obtained in Syria for $200 to $400 and that backdated passport stamps to be placed in the passport cost the same," the HSI report says.
