Gardaí have begun a new criminal investigation into an alleged “passports for sale” fraud at the passport offices in Dublin. It comes just months after an almost identical case emerged in the same State service.

In the latest case, a man and woman who work in the passport offices in Balbriggan, north Co Dublin, and on Molesworth Street in Dublin’s south inner city, were arrested today by the Garda’s National Bureau of Criminal Investigation.

The woman, from north Dublin, was released tonight and a file on her alleged role in the case was being prepared for the DPP. The man, who works in the city centre office and is from west Dublin, was still being questioned at Pearse St garda station.

Garda sources said the suspects are being investigated over allegations that passports with bogus identities were created and sold to criminal elements.

At the centre of the investigation is the alleged production and sale of passports to a Dublin criminal, one of which contained the man’s photograph alongside assumed personal details.

If obtained, authentically produced Irish passports containing false personal details could enable the holder to live covertly under a false identity anywhere in the world. They would also enable wanted criminals to travel without fear of being apprehended or having their movements tracked.

Passports are invaluable to those engaged in crime with a cross border dimension, including the smuggling of drugs or movement of cash, or to those who have skipped bail or have absconded from prisons and have left the jurisdiction.

The Department of Foreign Affairs confirmed it alerted the Garda to its suspicions last year.

“The Passport Service launched an investigation in autumn 2013 when internal checks revealed irregularities in the processing of three passports,” it said.

In an unrelated case that emerged last summer, two people are still being investigated over a similar fraud at the passport office. Those investigations are ongoing and the suspects no longer work in the passport office.