1Ready to go: Officers working on the Operation Mombasa raid. Photos: An Garda Siochana
An Irish-based organised crime gang was charging up to €400 each to “customers” for bogus identity papers.
The Irish connection to the network was broken after officers from the Garda National Immigration Bureau uncovered their base and seized a haul of suspected false documentation, financial records, phones and cash.
An international group, which is under investigation for identity fraud in at least seven European jurisdictions, is reckoned to have netted an estimated €500,000 in payments in recent years.
The Irish-based gang is connected to a pan-European group, largely dominated by Georgian nationals involved in the large scale production and distribution of false identity and travel documents, including passports, national ID cards and driving licences.
Fred: one would have to ask, how many people in Ireland hold False documents, the number would shock people. Then we have the Rogue Legal Eagles who front the Gangs and hide the monies with the help of Rogue Bankers, not forgetting the Dodgy Real Estate companies, and the second hand car market fronts. In Co. Clare, a woman, from Vietnam, with two teenage children (still in Vietnam), was discovered and is now in court. This woman was smuggled through Russia into Europe then Ireland was involved a stately home, growing cannabis. Who provided her with immigration papers? Who was aware of her hidden contribution to growing cannabis in this dwelling, for the marketplace?
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