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Date Published: 22/09/2023

Police bust Murcia and Alicante crime ring that falsified IDs for foreigners

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A total of 17 people have been arrested, including 10 foreign citizens who were working in Spain with stolen identities knowingly provided by their owners

Police bust Murcia and Alicante crime ring that falsified IDs for foreigners

Spanish police have dismantled a criminal network that falsified ID cards of foreign nationals as a way of defrauding the Social Security system. A total of 17 people have been arrested in the provinces of Madrid, Murcia and Alicante, among them 10 foreign citizens who were all living “in an irregular situation” and who obtained jobs using the false identities.

The other seven people who were arrested, all of them in Madrid, had transferred their personal data to these irregular migrants in exchange for money.

The investigation began in July of last year after police became aware of the existence of a network that, through false documentation, provided foreign citizens with their personal data in order to be able to get a job, despite not being properly registered in Spain.

As compensation for knowingly and willingly selling their personal data, the true owners of the identities on the cards received at least a part of those workers’ salaries and also benefitted from the Social Security contributions paid in their names to be able to claim future unemployment benefits and pensions.

These initial investigations led to the first arrests in the provinces of Murcia and Alicante during the first half of last year, of those allegedly responsible for the crimes of document falsification and usurpation of civil status.

After the first arrests, the investigators focused on finding out the identity of those who provided their personal data and bank account details. This led them to the Community of Madrid, where seven people were living who, through this strategy, had received payment and generated passive rights.

All of them were arrested at the end of August as allegedly being responsible for the crimes of “usurpation of civil status, favouring irregular immigration and Social Security fraud”.

Image: Policía Nacional

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