Alex Trelinski
POLICE have arrested an Alicante man, 74, for allegedly running a criminal network that pocketed around €1 million by producing bogus work contracts in exchange for large sums of money from foreign clients.
The Policia Nacional says that 110 arrests have been made after a two-year investigation, with the detainees coming from Algeria, Morocco, Spain, Colombia, Ecuador, Bangladesh and Poland.
The probe started in early 2022 when an Algerian man told them about paying €3,500 to a ‘businessman’ in exchange for a fictitious employment contract which would enable him to register him with Social Security.
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The contracts obtained by foreign citizens were also used to illegally apply for Spanish residency.
The alleged leader of the group is accused of acting in collusion with the administrators of several companies and sold job contracts for an average sum of between €2,500 and €3,500.
The gang also consisted of foreigners who acted as intermediaries and recruited clients.
Eight different companies were used by the group leading the Policia Nacional to open up investigations based on information gathered from Immigration Offices in Alicante, Murcia, Toledo, Huesca, A Coruña, and Navarre.
Officers tried to verify locations appearing in the contracts, which turned out to be non-existent addresses belonging to abandoned premises, closed businesses, open fields, private developments or blocks of residential apartments without business activity.
Charges laid down include the crime against the rights of foreign citizens in regard to illegal immigration, document falsification, fraud, social security fraud and even a crime against road safety.
