MADRID, February 26 (Europe Press) –
The National Police and the French National Police, in a joint operation coordinated by Europol, dismantled a criminal organization allegedly dedicated to providing false identity and travel documents to persons involved in crimes against property and to immigrants to enter the United States illegally. United Kingdom, United Kingdom and Ireland.
The network, of Georgian origin, forged the documents, managed their distribution (mainly to Georgian citizens) and laid out the route that the trafficked people had to take, as well as logistics in the countries of destination or transit, after paying about 8000 euros per person.
During the operation, in which three house searches were carried out, a total of 17 people were arrested as members of this, which had branches in different European countries (Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Lithuania and Ukraine).
The investigation was carried out in cooperation with the European Police, coordinated by Europol, thanks to joint work with the French OCRIEST cybercrime group, and with the support of an expert in forensic analysis of electronic devices from Europol, as well as assistance from the attaché of the Georgian Ministry of the Interior in Spain.
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The criminal network exposed forged identity and travel documents via the “dark web” and instant messaging applications which they also used to facilitate the fake documents.
The Spanish branch, based primarily in the province of Barcelona, was responsible for receiving and distributing passports from Italy, Greece, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia, among other countries, as well as driver’s licenses from EU countries and from Russia. They, in turn, sent money to Georgia, Ukraine, France and Germany as compensation for preparing false documents.
In addition, they discovered that criminal activity also consisted of encouraging irregular immigration to the United States via Mexico, to the United Kingdom and Ireland by submitting false documents, even to persons dedicated to committing property crimes.
Records in Spain and France
Finally, a police operation was carried out which allowed for the arrest of 14 people in different provinces (12 in Barcelona, one in Girona and one in Valencia) for allegedly being responsible for belonging to a criminal organization, false documents and crimes against the rights of foreign nationals. For its part, the French National Police arrested three other people in the framework of the same operation.
During the operation, three entry and search operations were made in the province of Barcelona (two in the town of Manresa and one in Badalona), worth $2,507, 2,155 euros, seven mobile phones, five computers and three forged asylum seeker cards. In Spain, a forged Latvian passport, numerous documents from Ukraine with photographs, a tampered passport in the name of a Ukrainian citizen, as well as qualifications that enabled them to work in the national territory, are in principle forged.
In France, five cell phones, two computers, an agenda, a numbered card for international transfers, two forged Romanian ID cards, as well as a €2,500 transfer receipt, a copy of the Romanian ID card, several photos of forged documents at the confiscated telephone stations and 1250 euros.
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