THE HAGUE, May 17 (Xinhua) -- A criminal gang accused of faking documents to facilitate illegal entry of migrants, mainly Syrians, Afghans and Iraqis, to and within Europe and the Schengen area has been dismantled, Europol announced on Wednesday.
The irregular migrants paid 2,000 to 3,000 euros for each false document and the gang had been criminally operating for 10 years, said the the European Union's police agency.
Eight members of the criminal organization were arrested, seven in Spain including the leader of the gang, and one in Greece, as a result of a coordinated law enforcement action day carried out simultaneously in Spain, Greece and Belgium on March 28, 2017.
In total, eight houses were searched, five in Madrid, two in Athens and one in Brussels. This resulted in the seizure of 100,000 euros in cash, numerous documents, money transfer receipts, data storage devices and mobile phones.
The gang leader, of Syrian nationality, was in charge of supervising the transportation of irregular migrants within different EU countries and towards their final destinations, mainly in Northern Europe. He alternated his residence between Spain and Belgium to avoid detection by the police. His brother, who operated from Greece, was responsible for producing and distributing the forged travel documents for use by the irregular migrants. And the network possessed a document forgery factory in Greece.
The coordinated law enforcement action was completed with the support of Europol and Eurojust, the Spanish National Police, in cooperation with the Hellenic Police and the Belgian Federal Police.
Document fraud is a key criminal activity linked to the migration crisis, noted Europol.
Migrant smuggling networks are increasingly offering tailor-made facilitation services including the provision of high-quality fraudulent travel and identity documents.
"The abuse of genuine passports by look-alikes continues to be the main modus operandi used by document fraudsters. ID cards are the most commonly detected document used as part of document fraud," it added.
