2023-06-30 16:25:43
Updated Friday, June 30, 2023 – 16:25
The clients paid sums even higher than 12,000 euros and the plot was in charge of paying false spouses and witnesses
Operation against fake weddings in Melilla Police / EFE
The National Police have arrested 50 people in Melilla in the last year and are looking for another 40 with arrest warrants in force for allegedly participating in 35 false marriages or de facto unions in the autonomous city and in Barcelona as an illegal access route for people of Moroccan nationality to Europe.
In a press release, the Superior Police Headquarters of Melilla has reported that the city’s Investigating Court number 4 has ordered the entry into provisional prison of one of the detainees, the main person investigated and organizer of this criminal network.
Specifically, according to what the Police have reported, this person runs a consultant dedicated to foreign procedures, despite not being registered as a lawyer or as a manager, and offered his services on both sides of the border, for which he used his knowledge. of Tamazight and Spanish and that a large part of his family resides in Morocco.
In this way, clients were made known, who came to pay sums of more than 12,000 euros to obtain the documentation that would allow them to stay in Spain through the formalization before a notary public of civil marriages or de facto unions of convenience with Spanish citizens. and in the presence of false witnesses.
The main investigated, according to the Police, has come to defraud on some occasion an interested party by charging him money without going through any formality.
To do this, he used recruiters, who occupied the immediately lower rung in the network, who recruited false spouses among Spanish citizens who were especially financially needy and even with psychological problems or addictions, who offered to participate in the plot in exchange for sums of money. close to 4,000 euros. They also recruited witnesses, who agreed to vouch for the false link in exchange for amounts ranging between 300 euros and 500 euros.
The network was also made up of regular collaborators who appeared in more than one link, either as spouses or as witnesses, making this practice a stable way of obtaining income.
The Police have detected some cases where these habitual collaborators participate as witnesses in more than one unionwhile others appear as spouses in links that have been formalized while other previous ones are in force.
The last rung of the network was made up of punctual collaborators, whose participation was limited to a single case, either as false spouse or witness, after which they received the corresponding remuneration for it.
The criminal dynamic began once the client contacted the management company, after which the recruiters recruited the Spanish spouse and witnesses, who appeared before a notary, where the union was formalized by consigning the act, which was sent to the Civil Registry or to the Registry of Domestic Partnerships to register the link, which takes civil effect from that moment.
Finally, the detained manager presented the application for the Residence Permit to the Foreigners Office in the name of the Moroccan spouse, to which he was entitled by virtue of the false connection, culminating in the criminal plan with the attainment of said document and therefore, its administrative regularization in Spain.
The bulk of this criminal plot is in Melilla, but in the investigation by the Unit Against Illegal Immigration Networks and Document Falsifications (UCRIF) of the Melilla Police Headquarters, which has lasted for a year, numerous cases of fraudulent domestic partnerships formalized in Barcelona.
In this case, the network took advantage of the fact that the regional legislation in this regard is much more lax in terms of its legal registration, so the manager traveled to Barcelona to officiate as an interpreter in one of these unions before a notary and presented the requests for Residence Authorizations in Foreign Offices of Catalonia.
The Police have detected the participation of 90 implicated in 35 liaisons between civil marriages and common-law couples by appearing before notaries in Melilla and Barcelona, as well as the presentation of applications for Residence Permits on behalf of the foreign spouses at the Foreigners’ Offices. of Melilla, Barcelona and Gerona, culminating in its concession in some cases.
The Police have searched the place where the detainee’s business is located and numerous documentation and computer material have been seized, in addition to several of the residence cards fraudulently obtained. The operation remains open as 50 of the 90 involved have been arrested, pending more arrests, for which the appropriate arrest warrants have been issued.
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