The arrest of one of the defendants for falsifying documents for day laborers.
They took advantage of their compatriots to collect their salaries without entering the field. Police have arrested the leaders of a network made up of sub-Saharan immigrants with legal work and residence documents who passed on their details to workers who did not have them in order to obtain a contract. It was the same leaders of the organization who received the salary and benefited from the benefits of their compatriots, day laborers in Alicante and Murcia, who saw only a minimal percentage of the wage bill. The amount was set by the leaders who lived in Madrid and had never set foot in a greenhouse or worked the land under the sun. A real exploitation.
The system was simple. An agent based in the east recruited migrants who came to Spain by boat and did not yet have the documents to live and work on the national territory. He proposed a simple arrangement: a countryman with legal status gave them his details, they created fake ID cards and added the real worker’s photo. In this way they could be hired by temporary employment agencies in the Alicante and Murcia teams. All proceeds went to the accounts of the network’s seven ringleaders, who lived in Madrid and never had contact with the migrants. “They gave an identity to several workers at the same time, so that for registration purposes they accumulated a working life that more than one wanted,” comments the chief inspector of the third group of the unit against immigration networks and falsehoods. Documentaries from the National Police in Madrid.
The investigation began in July 2022, as a result of an earlier operation that also saw the arrest of a group of exploiters. Police cannot currently confirm how many people have been affected or how long the network has been carrying out this activity, as the operation remains open following the arrests. By examining their assets and accounts, the agents can determine how much money they have earned from the sweat of their compatriots while they lived peacefully in Madrid.
In addition to collecting payroll, the detainees also contributed money toward social benefits when the Levant’s fruit-picking season comes to an end and also collected contributions toward future retirement. Meanwhile, victims continued to remain invisible to the administration, with no opportunity to gain professional experience on their record. “The quality of the copies was quite good, but since they were only submitted to the temporary employment agency, extreme quality is not required for acceptance,” emphasizes the chief inspector who led the operation.
The members of the conspiracy were arrested at the end of August last year for allegedly being responsible for the crimes of usurping personal status, facilitating irregular immigration and social security fraud.
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