The National Division for the Fight against Migrant Trafficking (DNLT) has dismantled a network specialized in the forgery of European passports, visas and residence cards. Three individuals were arrested for association of perpetrators, forgery and use of forged documents. It all started with a routine check at the Mpack border post (Ziguinchor), where a suspect was intercepted with fake travel documents. The inquiry led to the arrest of a second accomplice, in whom the investigators discovered, via his telephone, a vast traffic of falsified documents for Europe and the United States. During his interrogation, the man tried to present himself as a simple “authenticity verifier” equipped with a UV lamp, a version denied by audio exchanges in which he evoked the manufacture of false papers. He is known to have worked with accomplices in Europe to procure fake labour contracts, which he personalised and printed in Senegal for twenty thousand CFA francs per piece. For acts of civil status, including birth certificates, he benefited from the complicity of a municipal agent, paid sixty thousand CFA francs per document. The investigation also revealed the involvement of his son, who attempted to suppress evidence on WhatsApp by usurping his father’s identity, on the instructions of a cousin. Investigations are continuing to dismantle the entire network.
False documents: a dismantled network, three arrests
