The European police agency Europol announced this Sunday the dismantling in Greece of a criminal network that manufactured false identity cards for migrants, for which it charged up to 1,200 euros, and that also organized the irregular entry of people into the European Union (EU).
The cards allowed migrants to legalize their stay in the country of final destination without the local authorities detecting that they were false due to the high quality of the documents, as detailed by Europol in a statement.
The organization, based in Athens, was active and used highly sophisticated equipment including laser printing devices, software and scanners to produce fake travel documents or identity cards.
For each one of them, they charged between 400 and 1,200 euros, depending on the type of certificate and the country of origin of the migrant.
In total, the Greek police arrested 11 people for their alleged participation in this criminal network: three Palestinians, three Latvians, two Iranians, two Syrians and one Lebanese.
The Hellenic authorities dismantled four printing centers, where they seized 4,650 false identity documents, with an estimated market value of 600,000 euros, according to calculations published by Europol.
In addition to producing and disseminating false documents, the suspects also allegedly acted as traffickers, directly organizing the irregular entry of migrants by air.
To do this, they used their own falsified documents and charged 6,000 euros per person to offer the complete service, including plane tickets.
The Greek police also confiscated more than 20,000 euros in cash belonging to the criminal network, as well as electronic equipment and ten high-end laser printers for the production of fake IDs.
All of this, in four raids carried out after an investigation that the Hellenic authorities started in September 2023 with the help of Europol, which sent two experts to Greece to support operations on the ground.
The suspects ran independent printing presses and collaborated with each other on a case-by-case basis, mainly in the exchange of raw materials or in the preparation of the false documents.
The alleged forgers avoided direct contact with clients, who were irregular migrants or members of other migrant smuggling networks, instead turning to intermediaries who closed the deals and delivered the false documents on their behalf.
In Europol’s opinion, this operation confirms that smuggling groups are increasingly using false documents to facilitate the illegal entry of migrants into the EU, as well as to change their residence status once they are established.
Among the false documents seized, the police found, among others, imitations of Spanish, German, Italian, Belgian, Dutch, Danish, Finnish, Greek, Hungarian, Swedish or Slovenian cards, as well as certificates from countries outside the EU, such as Colombia, Ukraine or Norway.
