A MAN IN his 40s is due to appear before Cloverhill District Court in Dublin this morning, charged with a number of offences including trafficking contrary to section two of the Illegal Immigrants (Trafficking) Act 2000.

A man in his 20s appeared before Cloverhill District Court yesterday morning, charged with a number of offences including two counts of trafficking illegal immigrants.

The men were arrested by gardaí as part of Operation Mombasa – a multi-jurisdictional investigation that commenced in late 2018 centred on an organised crime group of non-nationals (primarily Georgian) who are known to be resident in Ireland.

These individuals are believed to be involved in the large-scale production and distribution of false identity and travel documents such as passports, national ID cards and driving licences.

It is believed such documents were sent from Ireland to individuals outside the State via regular postal and courier services.

In addition to investigations being conducted in Ireland, several related investigations are being conducted into the activities of this group in other European countries including Spain, Italy, France, Germany, Great Britain, Finland, as well as the United States.

Many of these individuals are themselves involved in the use of false identity documents within the Irish State, in some cases using these false identities to live and work within the State for several years.

Operation Mombasa was established as a result of the Icelandic and Spanish authorities intercepting Georgian nationals within their jurisdiction committing criminal offences. Inquiries conducted ascertained that some of these Georgian nationals had sourced false documents from Ireland.

Subsequent inquiries, and the interception and seizure by An Garda Síochána of suspected parcels from An Post, established that packages had been addressed to non-European nationals in various EU member states.

As part of this investigation, searches were conducted and a number of people were arrested in 2019 and 2018.

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