Pakistani nationals arrested for issuing fake travel & residency documents

Greek authorities recently arrested three Pakistani nationals aged 41, 42 and 47 who had set up a business of fake travel documents and residence permits. The arrests, which were made in the Agios Ioannis Rentis area in Piraeus, were conducted with assistance from customs officials at the Athens International Airport. All three men were led before the Piraeus misdemeanours prosecutor.

According to the reports, authorities began their investigation after discovering two packages containing 4,000 fake self-adhesive residence permit stickers that resembled those used in official Greek documents. The packages, claim the same reports, had apparently been mailed from China to a mini-market in the area, where two of the above three suspects were employed. The mini-market is also suspected of being a front for the gang to cover up their dirty activities. The two suspects would then send the residence permits to the third suspect who was operating a laboratory in a residential home which was producing fake documents. The documents would then be sold to foreigners.

How much money did they expect to collect from the above packages?

Are you sitting down...

The gang was expecting to collect more than 2,400,000 euros for the permits in both packages.

(Imagine how many packages had arrived in Greece in the past. Human trafficking is after all a billion euro industry!)

Following the arrests, authorities confiscated many items from the laboratory. These items included a computer, three laptops, a multi copier, a plastic card printer, two external hard discs and a camera, fake documents and Pakistani passports, Greek as well as Pakistani identity cards, watermarks of the Greek state, transportation cards, a bank book and even three banking cards.