A network that took migrant minors from the Canary Islands with false documentation falls

The Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal organization that facilitated the departure from the Canary Islands to the Peninsula and other European countries of at least 100 migrants, most of them minors, in exchange for a significant amount of money and to whom they provided false documentation.

As reported this Saturday by the General Directorate of the Civil Guard, in the operation, called Sortie 23, seven people have been arrested -five in Murcia, one in Valencia and another in Huelva- for the alleged crimes of belonging to a criminal organization, against the rights of foreign citizens, documentary falsification and induction of minors to abandon home.

The detainees took advantage of the vulnerable state of migrants who had recently arrived in the Canary Islands by boat, offering them false documentation and transfer to other parts of Spain or European countries, mainly Italy.. The leader of the organization, who was in charge of distributing the tasks and assuming the most important ones, was arrested when he was preparing to facilitate, through the use of illegal documentation, the departure of two minors from Valencia to Italy.

More than 100,000 euros of benefits

The organization recruited migrants of North African origin, mainly minors, who had arrived on the islands by boat and held them in one place until the trip took place.. Meanwhile, they prepared the false documentation and all the necessary infrastructure for their departure.. Once all this was obtained, they were taken to the different Canarian airports and given the necessary instructions so that they would not be detected.

On most occasions, the “passers” of the organization accompanied them during the air journey, thus ensuring the return of the documentation. According to what the investigators have been able to verify, the network maintained constant contacts with other criminal organizations based in Morocco and other states of the European Union and that, among others, offered freight by boat from Morocco to the Canary Islands for migrants who were on the continent. African. It is estimated that the organization would have organized more than 100 departures from the islands and that the benefits obtained from its illegal activity exceed 100,000 euros.

During the operation, the investigators have searched three addresses in which numerous documents, passports belonging to third parties, money and mobile phones, among other effects, have been seized.. The operation was carried out by agents of the Information Headquarters (UCE3) and the Information Section of the Canary Islands Zone, both belonging to the Information Service of the Civil Guard.