The Aliens and Borders Service (SEF) participated in the police operation carried out by the Spanish National Police, in collaboration with the UK Immigration Services and EUROPOL, which took place in Malaga, Spain.

The operation resulted in the dismantling of an international criminal network involved in the trafficking of Iranian citizens to the United Kingdom on commercial flights. The network operated from the city of Malaga in southern Spain and used Spain as a transit country. The organization charged each migrant about 25,000 euros for providing passports, travel documents, transfers and accommodation in the final destinations. In total, 101 individuals were detained.

SEF has played an important role in supporting investigations through the exchange of information, participation in operational meetings held at Europol and in the detention of several suspects in Portugal, namely at Faro and Porto Airports. The SEF Inspectors also participated actively in the house searches carried out in Malaga, at the invitation of the Spanish police authorities, recognizing the active and primordial collaboration of the SEF for the success of the investigations.

One of the facilitators of this illegal immigration network was identified in one of the detentions carried out under this operation at Faro Airport, whose identification was “key piece” in the location of the headquarters of this criminal group, which was located in the Spanish city of Malaga. This and other information, collected and investigated by the SEF, were forwarded to the competent Spanish authorities, allowing them to dismantle the entire criminal group, which involved several dozen Spanish, Iranian and Eastern citizens.