Spanish police dismantle fraud network selling fake residencies to illegal immigrants – NaturalNews.com

• Spanish police arrested 12 people for an immigration fraud ring.
• The group arranged fake partnerships between citizens and illegal immigrants.
• They used a single café’s address for all fraudulent residency applications.
• The scheme successfully granted legal status to at least five migrants.
• This reflects a larger, profitable pattern of this type of fraud across Europe.

Spanish authorities have just pulled back the curtain on a sophisticated criminal operation dedicated to defrauding the immigration system and selling legal residency to illegal immigrants through a network of fake partnerships and forged documents. The incident is just the latest example of a growing Europe-wide problem.

The Spanish National Police announced the arrest of 12 people in the town of Vic. Their alleged crime? Orchestrating fraudulent partnerships between Spanish citizens and illegal immigrants for the specific purpose of obtaining coveted residence permits reserved for family members of EU citizens. This was not a simple paperwork error; it was a deliberate, calculated scheme to deceive the government.

According to police, the investigation began in November 2024 when a cluster of suspicious applications triggered alarms. In each case, a foreign national living illegally in Spain claimed to be in a stable partnership with a Spanish citizen. The red flag that unraveled the entire operation was a single, shared address. Every applicant listed their residence at the same location on Rambla del Passeig, which investigators discovered was not an apartment, but a café.

The fraud was elaborate. The couples had deliberately avoided registering with the official Registry of Stable Partnerships, which would have verified their relationship. Instead, they submitted expertly forged documents directly to immigration officials. Among those arrested is believed to be the mastermind who arranged the sham partnerships, provided the fake paperwork, and coached clients on how to present their deceptive applications.

The scheme was, for a time, tragically effective. Authorities confirmed that at least five foreigners managed to obtain legal residency before the network was uncovered. This fraudulently obtained status halted their deportations and granted them full access to the benefits enjoyed by legal EU residents. In total, 14 applications were examined, with police seizing a trove of forged documents including registration forms, partnership certificates, and payroll slips.

A lucrative criminal enterprise

This case in Vic is far from an isolated incident. It follows a separate investigation in northern Spain back in February, where police dismantled another ring arranging marriages of convenience. In that case, a lawyer from Miranda de Ebro, a male recruiter, and a female intermediary were arrested after police uncovered 13 planned sham marriages. The financial incentives were clear: migrants allegedly paid up to €10,000 each to be paired with a Spanish partner, while the women were offered between €3,000 and €4,000 to participate.

The profitability of such schemes makes them persistent. Spanish authorities noted that in 2020, another criminal group was disbanded for arranging over 50 sham marriages for Indian and Pakistani migrants, charging a staggering €20,000 each. That network had members operating across Barcelona, Valencia, and Sitges, demonstrating the organized and far-reaching nature of this type of fraud.

The problem extends far beyond Spain’s borders, revealing a continent-wide vulnerability in immigration controls. Earlier this year in France, prosecutors charged a civil servant from the foreigners’ admission service in Nancy with corruption and fraud. The official allegedly accepted bribes of €25,000 per case to alter documents and approve residence applications for irregular migrants. Investigators traced at least 15 fraudulent files to her office.

Similarly, last month in Germany, an investigation revealed a booming black market for forged integration and language certificates on TikTok. These certificates are a mandatory prerequisite for permanent residency or citizenship. Vendors openly advertise with messages like “A1, A2, B1, B2, C1, C2, no school, no exam,” offering fast-track paperwork for prices ranging from €750 to €2,700. The brazen nature of these operations, attracting hundreds of thousands of views, shows a staggering level of audacity.

So the next time you hear official statistics or assurances about controlled borders and legal migration, remember the café in Vic. The arrest of 12 people is a small victory, but it exposes a vast and lucrative underworld dedicated to systematically undermining national laws and sovereignty. These schemes represent a direct attack on the integrity of immigration systems, and they are operating in plain sight, funded by those who seek to bypass the rules that millions of others follow faithfully.

Sources for this article include:

ZeroHedge.com

RMX.news

RMX.news

InfoMigrants.net