Moroccan Arrested in France for Alleged Role in Visa Smuggling Ring

It all started with the reception by the investigators of the sub-directorate for the fight against irregular immigration of an anonymous piece of information. The latter "designates a graying, bearded man wearing glasses" as the recruiter for the "Khadija" smuggling network. This has allowed hundreds of migrants to reach the Île-de-France region by paying between 6,000 and 7,000 euros to arrive in France with a tourist visa, reports Le Parisien.

The investigations prove fruitful. At the end of March, the law enforcement officers carry out a series of arrests, including that of Khalid. This 43-year-old Moroccan was arrested at the 115 hotel in Clichy (Hauts-de-Seine), where he lives with his wife and two children. While his wife is in order, his children are French, he is in the process of applying for a valid residence permit.

After his arrest, Khalid, who has been living in France since 2015 and works as a receptionist with a fake Italian residence permit in a hotel in Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), was indicted on March 29 in Paris, along with two accomplices, for "forgery and use of forgery, criminal conspiracy and offering services or benefits to a public official". He will then be incarcerated.

On December 3, the chamber of instruction ordered his continued detention, on the grounds that the risks of non-appearance in court could not be ruled out. This has aroused the incomprehension of the lawyer of the forty-something. "The file does not have the scale that we want to give it. In fact, it is only a small vein that allows people of foreign origin to bring their relatives. The one I am defending paid Khadija in Morocco to bring his sister. He did not receive a single euro. The searches have clearly demonstrated this. He lived in a hotel room and no wealth was discovered," he explains.

The telephone of his client was exploited on a rogatory commission. "The agents heard the ten or twelve people he helped. And none of them say they paid for this service," adds the lawyer.