dislocated, from police officers her Organized Crime and Human Trafficking Directorate of the Attica Security Directoratea gang that traded in travel documents.

Three (3) foreigners aged 38, 39 and 43 years old were arrested at noon on 09/02/2023 as part of an operation planned and carried out by the police officers of the above service, as members of a gang and for its professional offenses and further receiving and disposing of the proceeds of crime, and also possession and trafficking of third party travel documents by persons who have formed a gang for the purpose of generating income.

As part of the investigation of information about the activities of a gang of selling genuine Greek passports to foreigners in exchange for the amount of 3000-4000 euros each, in order to facilitate their illegal departure from the country to the countries of central and northern Europe, the presence of a structured criminal group with constant criminal activity.

As it turned out as a result of the study, the members of the organization performed different roles and performed the following specific tasks:

The 38-year-old man was the leader of a criminal gang that housed and cared for members with illegal travel documents.

He also made contacts with potential clients to sell documents by visiting currency exchange offices with another accomplice, leaving him to receive or deposit the necessary amounts of money.

The 39-year-old and 43-year-old men were in charge of obtaining travel documents from other criminal networks operating in the countries of Central and Northern Europe and then transporting them to our country.

During the search conducted in the house of the members of the group, the following were found and seized:

• -39- original travel documents of the 1951 Convention.
• -44- authentic Greek residence permits
• -3- identity cards of the Schengen countries
• -3- residence permit of SCHENGEN countries
• -2- asylum seeker cards issued by the Greek authorities
• -1- driver’s license and -1- driver’s card issued by the Romanian authorities containing the same information.
• -1- Police ID
• Money transfer documents
• Handwritten notes in Arabic
• -850- Euro
• -4- mobile phones
• -1- tablets

Some of the confiscated travel documents were reported as stolen or lost.

Those arrested have been taken to the Athens Criminal Prosecutor’s Office, while an investigation into links to the criminal networks that provided them with travel documents continues.