Quebec lab making fake passports, birth certificates dismantled: police

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A Montreal laboratory used to manufacture counterfeit passports, birth certificates, driver’s licences and other important documents was dismantled earlier this month, Quebec provincial police said Tuesday.

The Sûreté du Québec (SQ) carried out an operation on July 8 in collaboration with Montreal and Gatineau police, as well as Quebec’s Forensic Science and Legal Medicine Laboratory, according to a news release from the provincial police force.

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The operation resulted in the seizure of more than 250 items used to manufacture counterfeit documents, including passport covers, bank card templates, laminators and printers, police said.

Three vehicles were also seized.

Captain Marie-Hélène Poulin, head of the SQ’s Economic Crimes and Cybercrime Investigation unit, said a range of counterfeit documents could be produced at the laboratory, including complete passports for Canada, France, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Italy; driver’s licences for Quebec, Ontario, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Florida; firearms acquisition permits and Quebec health insurance cards.