The Portuguese Judiciary Police (PJ), through the National Counter-Terrorism Unit (UNCT), announced on Saturday the arrest of a man and a woman in Lisbon. They face charges related to assisting illegal immigration, document forgery, and computer fraud, among other crimes.
According to a PJ statement, the arrests followed a police operation.
“The suspects, whose criminal activities date back to early 2020, developed and executed a criminal plan aimed at facilitating the fraudulent regularization of immigrants, predominantly of South Asian origin. They did this through forged employment contracts, false residency certificates, and other falsified documents to support legalization processes within the national territory,” the statement read.
During residential and non-residential searches conducted at various locations in Lisbon, the PJ seized a “vast collection of false documentation,” estimating that the fees charged for these services to hundreds of immigrants amount to approximately 200 thousand euros.
The detainees, a 56-year-old foreign national and a 48-year-old Portuguese woman, were placed in preventive detention following their initial judicial interrogation.
The inquiry is overseen by the Public Prosecutor’s Office of Oeiras.
