Fake document hub taken down in Greece

Law enforcement agencies in the US, Germany and Greece have dismantled a criminal network producing forged documents to assist in migrant smuggling.

Working with Europol, the authorities raided a fake document distribution hub, disguised as an Athens travel agency, making eight arrests. Eight members of the network, which consists mostly of Pakistani, Iranian and Turkish nationals, mostly with criminal records that included document fraud, were arrested during the raids.

Over two action days on July 24 and 25, officers carried out five house searches and raided the travel agency used by the main suspect. They discovered a fully equipped forgery lab and seized hundreds of counterfeit documents, passport components, biometric data sets, forgery equipment with two high-end laser printers, mobile phones, vehicles, drugs and over €68,000 ($78,000) in cash.

"As a legitimate business, the travel agency served to veil and facilitate the distribution of illicit documents," said Europol in a statement.

"With each member fulfilling a specific role in the criminal organisation, the suspects used aliases to send illicit documents to recipients in various EU countries and third countries," it continued. "Buyers could choose between a variety of passports, ID cards, driver’s licenses or even residency permits from various EU countries."

Investigations show that France, Spain and the UK were among the countries where the most parcels were sent to, reflecting the high levels of illegal migration into those countries.

The criminal organisation also facilitated migrant smuggling from Turkey to Greece, concealed migrants in a safe house in Athens, and organised secondary movements to other European countries by air using forged documents.