Latvians illegally turn Russians, Byelorussians and Ukrainians into Europeans
15 January 2008The police of Latvia disclosed the criminal group consisted of government officials who trade in the Latvian passports.
19 officials are detained on suspicion of counterfeiting and sale of EU passports.
The main buyers of illegal passports were Byelorussians, and also Russian and Ukrainians. According to representatives of the Latvian security police, these documents were not a usual counterfeit - their owners were registered in all electronic systems of the country, and thus they became full citizens of the EU.
Police representatives emphasized that all persons who illegally got the Latvian passports, have already been determined, however in the interests of investigation their names are not called yet. For the time of criminal group’s activity (2004-2005) they have given more than 100 passports, at that the price for each of them changed from 70 up to 100 thousand euros.