Passport forgers arrested
Police in Greece and Germany have smashed a criminal ring based in Athens which helped Asian migrants travel within Europe using forged passports, officers in Athens said yesterday. Greek police arrested two Indian men in Athens who allegedly set up and ran the operation. One of the men was known as Ajit. Two of his relatives were also arrested in Germany, as well as a number of Asian migrants who had arrived in the country with doctored passports. Officers said that Ajit allegedly used a calling center, offering foreigners cheap phone calls abroad, which he opened in central Athens about a year ago as the base for his operation. The members of the ring also used an apartment in Kypseli to tamper with the passports given to them by migrants, police said. Fake stamps and seals were used to forge the passports so the migrants could travel from Greece to Germany and other countries in the European Union. The migrants paid between 150 and 1,000 euros for the service.
