Cologne (dpa / lnw) – An employee of the Cologne immigration office is said to have issued incorrect identification documents and given them to a suspected smuggling ring for money. According to the federal police, the woman and two men were arrested on Thursday. Arrest warrants were issued for the three suspects. The investigation is about the suspicion of gang and commercial smuggling of foreigners. In addition, twelve properties in the Cologne area, in Gelsenkirchen and in the greater Limburg area in Hesse were searched on behalf of the Cologne public prosecutor’s office on Thursday. These are apartments and offices.
The federal police are investigating a total of eleven suspects. They are said to have provided people, mainly from Syria, with illegally issued identity documents in order to enable them to enter Germany without permission. Some of the incorrect documents are said to have been brought abroad by intermediaries and handed over to the people concerned there. When they left their home country, they could have presented a document proving an alleged right of residence in Germany. The ID cards are said to have been disposed of before entering Germany so that those who had entered Germany could apply for asylum.
So far, 26 cases have been identified in which several thousand euros are said to have been paid for each smuggling, the federal police said. During the searches on Thursday, around 12,000 euros in cash, around 50 mobile phones, several data carriers, laptops and computers as well as numerous documents such as passports and incorrect certificates for a provisional right of residence were seized. About 250 federal police officers were involved in the operation. According to the public prosecutor’s office, the arrested men are a German-Syrian and a Turkish national. The federal police’s investigations have been going on for about eight months.
