Corsica Police Bust Visa Fraud Ring Charging Moroccans €8,000 for Entry to Europe

This is the culmination of an investigation that lasted three years. "We started with an illegal immigrant arrested in Corsica, then by pulling the thread we fell on a network with a modus operandi never before uncovered," says a police source to the AFP. The investigators on the island of beauty had placed the heads of the Moroccan network under wiretapping before discovering their maneuvers.

Moroccan nationals had a real Chinese or Thai visa affixed to their passport for 8,000 euros in cash. They boarded a flight to China or Thailand, but made a stopover in Frankfurt, Germany, where they filed an asylum application. In total, 195 illegal immigrants transited from Morocco to Frankfurt in eighteen months. Once out of the German detention center, they returned to France, Italy or Spain with accomplices from the network.

In France, "some, thanks to contacts in the Seine-et-Marne prefecture, obtained real residence permits, for 8,000 euros," it is specified. This investigation on a rogatory commission from an investigating judge in Ajaccio resulted in the placement in custody of 11 people. Among them, eight people - four men and four women - including four French people were indicted, the same source said.