Major Athens-based forgery and smuggling gang busted

Greek police and Europol have dismantled a gang dealing in forged identification documents and people smuggling in a large-scale operation code-named Taurus.

Some 20 arrests have been made while forgery workshops have been identified in four Athens neighborhoods – Pangrati, Neos Cosmos, Patissia and Koliatsou – where the gang produced passports, driver’s licenses, residence permits and ID cards and supplied them to foreign nationals wishing to travel to other EU countries, mainly the United Kingdom.

The gang was headed by a 54-year-old Albanian known as “theios” (uncle) or “archontas” (lord) while his main accessories were four of his fellow countrymen. The cost of arranging a trip from Greece to the UK via Athens Airport was 2,250-4,500 euros.

The investigation established that 36 people were smuggled into the UK and Ireland. The gang also provided provided forged documents to foreigners living in EU countries.