Gardai have smashed an organised crime gang linked to an international network involved in identity fraud in at least seven European jurisdictions.

Officers from the Garda national immigration bureau uncovered the network’s Irish base today and seized a large haul of suspected false documentation, phones, financial records and cash.

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.

Officers made the find during a search operation this morning in west Dublin and arrested a 22-year-old man and a 45-year-old woman.

Both suspects were taken to Blanchardstown garda station where they are currently being held and questioned under section 50 of the Criminal Justice Act, 2007, which allows them to be detained without charge for up to seven days.

The searches and arrests were part of Operation Mombasa, which also resulted in the arrest of another suspect by Spanish national police in Barcelona yesterday.

More false documents, flight tickets and bookings and evidence from parcel delivery services were discovered in the Barcelona searches.

Gardai also arrested another suspect, a 47-year-old man, last Thursday and he is also being held under section 50 in Ballymun station.

Three Spanish police officers and the Garda liaison officer to Spain, who is based in Madrid, were also present this morning during the operation.

Similar police investigations into suspected identity fraud and the activities of an international organised crime gang are also under way in Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Britain and Finland, with the assistance of Europol and agencies in the United States.

Operation Mombasa is described as a multi-jurisdictional investigation, that began here in late 2018 into the activities of foreign nationals, mainly Georgian, known to be resident in Ireland.

Many of the suspects involved are using false identity documents while living and working in this country for the past few years.

Mombasa was established after Icelandic and Spanish authorities intercepted Georgian nationals within their countries, who were involved in criminal offences.

Follow up inquiries established that some of those Georgian nationals had sourced false documents from Ireland.

Gardai with the help of An Post then intercepted packages that had been addressed to foreign nationals in various EU states.

The interceptions sparked off a number of searches and the arrest of a man in May last year.

Gardai said inquiries established that a suspected network of two families from Georgia, living in Dublin, were allegedly producing and providing false documents to other people across Europe.

They said this organisation produced and distributed false documents, which helped foreign nationals to circumvent immigration laws for the purpose of entering Ireland and the UK illegally.

Inquiries showed that a large number of non Europeans had attempted to travel in this country using their false documents.

As well as the arrests, gardai used 13 warrants issued in October to carry out searches in co-ordination with similar searches in other EU states and a big amount of possible evidential items was seized overall.

Gardai established an investigation headquarters in April and a senior officer from the immigration bureau appointed to co-ordinate inquiries.

With the help of a senior analyst, they established the identities of suspected members of the organised crime gang here and crucial data and evidence was secured from various money transfer services, financial institutions and parcel delivery services, allegedly linking the group to crimes.

Online Editors