SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE, March 9. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal organization based on the island of Tenerife dedicated to facilitating the transfer of migrants to the Peninsula from the Canary Islands and has arrested four people.
During the month of March 2021, it was learned of the existence of a group of people of Moroccan origin who could be dedicating themselves to offering certain services to irregular migrants arriving in the Archipelago by boat.
It was detected that these services consisted of the purchase of flights to the Peninsula, which would be accompanied by falsified documentation that would allow immigrants to fly legally.
After conducting the first investigations, it was learned that this criminal organization accessed the reception centers where newly arrived immigrants were located to offer them their services.
Once they had established the appropriate contacts, they were offered the possibility of flying to the Peninsula using falsified documentation or that it belonged to another person. Depending on whether the counterfeiting or usurpation took place, the prices varied, although they were always in the range of between 1,000 and 2,000 euros per person.
Likewise, accommodation services were provided in occupied homes located in the town of El Fraile (Arona) while the documentation and flights were being prepared, as well as pick-up and transfer to the airport to verify that the process was completed satisfactorily.
In the course of this investigation, the existence of substantiated evidence of the commission of a crime of trafficking in human beings was also detected, consisting of the introduction in Tenerife of a Moroccan citizen who, through the false promise of an employment contract, was transferred from their country of origin (via Turkey) to this island.
It is estimated that the criminal organization could have been operating since the beginning of 2021, assessing that since the beginning of the investigation they could have managed to get some 20 immigrants off the island.
As a result of the exploitation of the operation, four components of the criminal group were arrested, carrying out an entry and search of the homes of two of those investigated and intervening various documentation, identity documents, money and abundant computer equipment and mobile devices for analysis and study.
The operation has been carried out by the Information Group of the Civil Guard Command of Santa Cruz de Tenerife in coordination with the Special Central Unit number III of the Civil Guard Information Headquarters, as well as other various Units resident in Tenerife due to to the entity of the operation, such as the Organic Unit of the Judicial Police, the Citizen Security Unit and the Rural Patrol of the Playa de las Américas Company, all under the direction of the Investigating Court no. 3 of Arona and Delegate Prosecutor’s Office for Immigration of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
