Illegal border crossings and fake passports

09 ILLEGAL BORDER CROSSINGS AND FAKE PASSPORTS

Criminals often make use of fraudulent travel documents to disguise their identity when crossing country borders to carry out their illegal activities. In this case, Chen Jiancheng (OCG leader) and Chen Chengzong (co-leader) obtained fake Malaysian passports through an unauthorised agency in Malaysia that enabled them to repeatedly travel in and out of China undetected.

After the ivory seizure in July 2013, the Chens escaped from China to avoid being arrested. They illegally crossed the border into Vietnam, then via Thailand into Malaysia. In 2015, they obtained the fake passports and Chengzong became “Xu Zhijian” (official name Kho Chee Kian). The ASB’s later investigation revealed he used his passport to travel between Malaysia and China on 21 occasions to continue the ivory smuggling business. He was also known to have travelled to Nigeria on at least one occasion in 2016, for which he is likely to have used the fake Malaysian passport.

Chen Chengzong was eventually arrested by police in November 2018. He had slipped back into China under the cover of his foreign identity and was found dining at a restaurant.

Key finding 9

Chen Jiancheng and Chen Chengzong obtained fake Malaysian passports to enable them to enter China undetected using a false identity. It was found that Chen Chengzong had entered China 21 times between 2015 and 2019 using his fake passport.