They recruited compatriots in Spain to come and work clandestinely as agricultural workers on Landes farms. In addition to the false identity document, they had to pay an entrance fee and a monthly subscription.
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Nine Ecuadorian and Colombian nationals were arrested in Labouheyre (Landes) on Monday June 10, France Bleu Pays Basque reported on Friday June 14. They are suspected of having created a network trafficking false Spanish identity cards, sold for 1,000 euros each. Five of them were imprisoned.
It was the agents of the Border Police (PAF) of Hendaye who carried out this investigation, explains France Bleu Pays Basque, which says that everything started from the agricultural social mutuality (MSA). She asked the police to authenticate foreign documents, which allowed Oltim, the office for combating the illicit trafficking of migrants of the PAF of Hendaye, to discover that they were false Spanish identity cards.
After 18 months of investigation, the presence of an organized network of traffickers was established. France Bleu Pays Basque details that the nine people arrested recruited compatriots living in Spain, went to pick them up and took them across the border via mountain passes. They then made them work on farms in the Landes as European nationals, and to do this they sold them false Spanish identity cards for 1,000 euros each. Paper documents, but also digital, made from stolen cards whose photos were changed.
Illegal agricultural workers then had to pay an entry fee of 1,000 euros, then 250 euros per month to use this service, adds France Bleu Pays Basque. At least a hundred illegal immigrants were victims of these practices.
