Dismantling of trafficking in false documents that fueled organized crime

A network, which provided false identity papers or driving licenses on order to large drug traffickers or fugitive criminals, was dismantled last week, AFP learned Monday (June 7) from a police source.

Six men were indicted on Friday and three of them were remanded in custody as part of an investigation opened to the Specialized Interregional Jurisdiction (Jirs) of Paris.

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In less than a year, the gang has passed at least 70 false French, Belgian, Swiss or Spanish documents (passports, national identity cards, driving licenses), charged 1,500 euros each on average, told AFP Xavier Delrieu, head of the Central Office for the Suppression of Irregular Immigration and the Employment of Untitled Foreigners (Ocriest).

The investigation started in July 2020 from a case initiated by the mobile research brigade (BMR) of Versailles "following the improper obtaining of a national identity card", at the Yvelines prefecture. The Ocriest investigators, attached to the central border police department (DCPAF), were thus able to trace back to the forger and then “after several months of work, identify all the members of the network”, continued Xavier Delrieu .

This was made up of several counterfeiters, intermediaries to turn down customers and accomplices to launder forged papers, in particular driving schools or a shoemaker who supplied false stamps. Among the beneficiaries were several drug traffickers "from the top of the spectrum," said the commissioner, and at least two felony criminals, also involved in drug trafficking, were arrested in October 2020 and February by the National Police Brigade. fugitives (BNRF), thanks to this investigation.

Illegal foreigners also profited from the trafficking. "This served them either to escape research, not to respect their judicial controls or to circulate freely in France, in Europe and in the world", he added. False documents "of very good quality", either stolen and then falsified, or created from scratch and sent by parcel from Turkey, have been detected thanks to the work of the Expertise Division in Documentary Fraud and Identity ( Defdi). During the searches, 17,000 euros in cash, 22 national identity cards, passports, printers and laminators were seized.