Agents of the National Police assigned to the Immigration and Borders Group of the Provincial Police Station of Jaén have detained in Pozo Alcón (Jaén), Jaén, Córdoba and Málaga 32 members of a criminal organization dedicated to promoting illegal immigration in the country and other related crimes, which were dedicated to facilitating the entry into Spain of citizens of Maghreb origin, by fraudulently obtaining residence and work permits as family members of Union citizens.
To do this, those arrested arranged marriages of convenience between Moroccan and Maghreb citizens and Spanish national women, with the aim of regularizing their situation.
Some of the latter, which granted the status of community citizen to applicants for a residence permit in Spain, had previously been de facto couples with other citizens of the same nationality and for the same purpose.
The operation has resulted in the arrest of 32 people of different nationalities – Spanish, Maghreb and Moroccan -, as well as the main leader of the organization, a 43-year-old citizen of Maghreb origin with numerous records for crimes of another nature. , as alleged perpetrators of favoring illegal immigration, falsifying documents and belonging to a criminal organization.
The investigation began in February of this year, after the agents of the Provincial Immigration Brigade detected several requests for residence permits from relatives of citizens of the Union, which could be “white” or marriages of convenience, with the purpose of to be eligible for the residence permits outlined above, drawing attention in the first instance to the large age difference between the couples.
From the first investigations and after an exhaustive analysis of the documentation by the researchers, they verified how the Spanish citizens who granted the status of community citizens to the applicants for the residence permit in Spain, all of them of Maghreb and Moroccan origin, already They had previously been de facto couples with other citizens of the same nationality and for the same purpose, and it also happened that some of these women had already been arrested in 2016 for similar events.
The criminal organization was based mainly in the town of Pozo Alcón (Jaén) and in the capital – Jaén -, although it also had branches in Córdoba and Málaga.
The modus operandi used by the organization consisted of recruiting Spanish citizens, the vast majority being women residing in the town of Córdoba, who, by paying a sum of money that was around 400 euros, agreed to register as a de facto couple. in the Registry of Córdoba, with foreign citizens of Maghreb origin, with whom they did not have any type of intimate or emotional relationship, so that once registered, they could obtain the benefit that the condition of being a family member of a community citizen granted them, thus facilitating the access to a residence and work permit in Spain.
Once the registration record as a de facto couple was obtained, the criminal organization was in charge of obtaining “ad hoc” for these foreign citizens the rest of the necessary requirements for the granting of a residence permit in Spain, such as false registration certificates, registrations fictitious Social Security registrations, false self-employment registrations and medical insurance, among others, all of them for which they charged amounts that could reach 5,000 euros.
During the investigation, the agents detected a total of 20 fraudulent community family permit applications, achieving the termination of 14 permits obtained in fraud of law. Likewise, they have proceeded to the extinction of 20 de facto couple registrations made fraudulently in Córdoba.
With the exploitation of this operation, a total of 32 people have been arrested, as well as the main leader of the organization, a 43-year-old man of Maghreb nationality, who has an extensive criminal record, all of them detained for being involved in crimes of favoring illegal immigration, falsifying documents and belonging to a criminal organization. All detainees were placed at the disposal of the competent Judicial Authority.
