The Portuguese authorities had transferred the case on Monday: the six “brains” of a criminal network of smugglers and 110 illegal immigrants were arrested in the morning in Lisbon. 80 Portuguese police officers on site, Europol (European Criminal Police Agency) analysts, a German investigator, and Three border police officers from Hendaye. Because it all started at the Basque border, in October 2021.
European investigation team
At that time, the PAF intercepted 18 vehicles and 138 people in an irregular situation, trying to reach France via Hendaye. “They are all Indian or Pakistani and their stories are the sameBayonne prosecutor Jérôme Bourrier explains. passing by They were immediately tried before the Bayonne court
But at the same time, investigators are feeding a larger file.”. Wiretapping, interrogations…which they then passed on to the Portuguese investigators.
Because at the beginning of 2023, a Joint Investigation Team was set up under the auspices of Eurojust, the European judicial cooperation body. The first is the responsibility of the Bayonne Public Prosecutor’s Office […] and successAccording to the prosecutor. Investigators trace the matter to the point of questioning the six “brains” of the network: for several years He sold a sort of “bundle” of fake papers to immigrants, for €10,000 each, which then enabled them to apply for naturalization to the Portuguese administration.. After five years they have obtained Portuguese citizenship and can thus move freely within the European Union.
Why Portugal?
This network seems to have exploited a weakness in Portuguese legislation, linked to a 2013 law, as Le Monde explained in February
With the aim of facilitating the acquisition of Portuguese citizenship for the descendants of Jews expelled from the country at the end of the fifteenth century.
