Arrests in Athens, Kalamata over forged documents
Attica immigration officers on Friday arrested two Sudanese and one Somalian man after raiding a shop they were using as a front for making and selling forged identification papers and travel documents to illegal migrants, according to reports.
The three men, together with a Libyan accomplice who is being sought by authorities, allegedly supplied forged residence permits, passports and ID cards to undocumented migrants wanting to travel from Greece to other countries of the European Union.
According to investigators, the suspects are part of a wide network that supplied them with documents procured by pickpockets working all over Europe, and especially in Belgium.
The stolen documents were then allegedly sent to Athens either by post or by carriers, altered and sold on for as much as 1,000 euros to gangs that help illegal immigrants cross into other EU countries.
Meanwhile, in a separate incident in the southern Peloponnese city of Kalamata, airport security arrested two Afghan men trying to board an airplane to Nuremberg in Germany using forged travel documents. One of the two men was trying to travel on a fake Bulgarian passport while the other was using an Afghan passport with a forged Austrian visa.
