Montreal police claim they've broken two major fraud rings responsible for creating fake credit cards, passports and residency cards.
"We were a little bit surprised to see exactly the variety of credit cards," police spokesperson Christian Emond told CTV Montreal.
"Just about every credit card that you could imagine could have been fabricated."
Police allege three suspects were behind two independent fraud rings: 33-year-old Khaled Bentoutaou, arrested in late December; and, Daniel Pierre, 40 and Marco Araujo, 29, who were both arrested this month.
All three face several fraud charges.
Officers confiscated tens of thousands of dollars worth of equipment used to make the forgeries, about $1,700 worth of credit cards, and profiles of more than 100 credit card holders.
The three men are also accused of creating false personal documents, likes passports, social insurance cards, and permanent residency cards used to obtain visas.
"If these guys are making these cards, there's a demand for it," said Emond. "Now the investigation will let us know exactly what they were supposed to be used for."
Security expert Michel Juneau Katsuya, a former CSIS agent, said that the operations were likely focused on financial gain and not terrorism, because police say they also found traces of the drug ecstacy.
"There were documents used by people who are in Canada illegally, but who wanted to eventually tap into the social system that we have in order to gain financial access," he said.
With a report by CTV Montreal's Annie DeMelt and files from The Canadian Press
