Police dismantle trafficking network

LAW enforcement officials dismantled a human trafficking network.

National Police officers, Europol and Interpol broke up a criminal organisation dedicated to human trafficking led by Indian and Pakistani nationals. Police authorities from Denmark, Norway, Germany, Costa Rica, the United States and India also participated in the operation.

The network reportedly made more than €3,000 with residence permits processed with forged documents and marriages of convenience. The detained would purportedly charge €12,000 to arrange marriages between European women and Indian or Pakistani nationals. The marriages would be solemnised in third countries to keep them from being annulled.

The detained would also charge their clients $25,000 (€18,484) to help them illegally enter the United States. They would provide them with the documents necessary to enter Central America and Mexico as tourists, from where the clients would cross the border to the US.

The criminal organisation had a printing house in Santa Coloma de Gramanet (Catalonia) used a as a front for the lab where the documents were forged.

Following the international operation, 66 people were arrested, including the ringleaders, and 17 house searches were conducted in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia. Police officers seized more than 1,000 forged documents, a printer, cell phones and an undisclosed amount of cash.