Four Chinese immigrants arrested in Bermuda and two others kicked-out over the weekend were part of an international operation to smuggle people illegally into the United States, Home Affairs Minister Terry Lister said yesterday.

The four, travelling on forged Japanese passports, were remanded in custody at Magistrates' Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to fraudulently entering false documents when they arrived on the Island last Thursday on a British Airways flight from London.

They were arrested on Saturday as they tried to fly out to the US.

Another two Chinese nationals who arrived from London on Saturday on phoney Japanese passports were sent back the same day before clearing Immigration in Bermuda.

Crown counsel Anthony Blackman told Magistrates' Court on Tuesday the four should be remanded in custody because "they are attracting interest in other places. There is an ongoing investigation. I don't want to expose too much because of the international investigation".

Yesterday, Mr. Lister said Bermuda had been tipped off months ago about a gang ring that was trying to illegally smuggle Chinese into America.

He said he did not know if the people were being smuggled in to commit crime, or whether they were simply trying to get into the US to work.

And he revealed the four were caught out on Saturday when a US Immigration officer at Bermuda International Airport asked them questions in Japanese, which they couldn't understand.

"We were alerted some months ago to the fact that there was some gang operation with Chinese people travelling on Japanese passports," said Mr. Lister.

"The passports these Chinese were carrying were as genuine as genuine could be and it requires a real expert to know the difference.

"Four were processed last Thursday because their passports looked valid. When they went to leave on Saturday, they stepped onto US soil for clearing customs and officials who saw them there got suspicious.

"One asked them some questions in Japanese and they understood him as well as I did - and that's what gave them away.

"We are pursuing this, and it is bigger than Bermuda. We are very pleased it was detected. What it says to the US authorities is that people are trying to get in illegally through the Bermuda route and they are going to be caught.

"We are very pleased that what happened has happened. It's a first class job. I think we will come out of this with Bermuda's reputation enhanced."

Mr. Lister said it was part of a scam to get people from Asia into the US and Canada through Europe and Bermuda rather than through the conventional Pacific Coast route.

In the past three years, Immigration officers had also foiled an attempt by a Sri Lankan and some Pakistanis to get to Canada and the US through Bermuda.

Chief Immigration Officer Dr. Martin Brewer said yesterday that while a group of Pakistanis were originally suspected of ties to a terrorist group, no evidence was found and they were allowed to leave as normal passengers.