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Spain breaks up global people smuggling ring

Alex Dunham
Alex Dunham - [email protected]
Spain breaks up global people smuggling ring
The crime gang had a printing house in the Catalan city of Santa Coloma de Gramanet from which they falsified all the documents. Photo: Spanish Police

Spanish police have arrested 66 people belonging to an organized crime group that arranged fake marriages and printed bogus residency documents for Indian and Pakistani citizens trying to get into Europe and the USA.

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The arrests were carried out in Barcelona, Valencia, Alicante and Murcia with the help of Europol, Interpol and other countries looking to crack down on clandestine immigration.

According to Spain’s National Police, the human trafficking ring made at least €300,000 ($405,000) in profits by arranging the marriages between European women and Indian or Pakistani citizens.

They would charge €12,000 for the fake couple to get married in a country that wasn’t theirs to stop it from being annulled and €25,000 for fake documentation to Central American countries and Mexico, where they could then enter illegally into the US.

The crime gang had a printing house in the Catalan city of Santa Coloma de Gramanet from which they falsified all the documents, Spanish daily el Mundo reported.

The gang’s leaders have also reportedly been arrested. 

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