A joint operation by the National Police and the Civil Guard has dismantled a criminal network based on the island of Gran Canaria, which has provided migrants in an irregular situation with false documents to be able to travel to the peninsula or other states in the European Union, according to the Union both armed agencies reported in a statement. The organization had completed at least 80 outings, according to Civil Guard sources, who estimate up to three people could have traveled in each of them. The benefit achieved is 100,000 euros.
The conspiracy, investigated as part of Operation Pijara (name of a fern widespread on the islands), captured migrants of Maghrebi origin – both minors and adults – who had arrived on the islands in a small boat. According to the police, they were arrested “in different places” while preparing the forged documents or on behalf of third parties and all the necessary infrastructure for their departure. They were then taken to various ports and airports in the Canary Islands “to give them the necessary instructions so that they would not be spotted”. The organizers sometimes accompanied them during the trip to ensure the return of the documentation.
Two agents are guarding one of the investigators of “Operation Píjara”.
The security forces arrested seven people (six in Gran Canaria and one in Ciudad Real), most of them of North African origin. They are charged with alleged crimes of membership in a criminal organization, violating the rights of foreign nationals and forgery of documents. An eighth member of the organization is currently in prison on a different charge, according to investigators, and is serving a sentence.
In April 2021, a judge of the Canary Islands Supreme Court ruled that the only restriction that can be imposed on a migrant for his movement within Spanish territory are health restrictions, unless the police restrict his movements for a period of maximum a 72 hour step before returning to the country of origin or for a judge to do so. These three days represent a key period. After this time, the repatriation file, which is automatically opened to any migrant entering the national territory without authorisation, becomes invalid and the security forces have to process a new file (this time for expulsion). The order then provided a loophole in the de facto blockade that strained migrants who arrived on the islands by boats and were systematically prevented from exiting.
However, many of those arriving on the islands do so without valid papers, which entails an additional legal check and prevents them from moving to the peninsula or other EU countries. It was precisely this situation that the prisoners allegedly wanted to take advantage of. They also managed to establish a “permanent” network of contacts with criminal networks based in Morocco and other EU countries. These other organizations offered to have the two forces maintain cargo by sea from Morocco to the Canary Islands for migrants staying on the African continent. “Likewise, they diversified their work, taking responsibility for carefully organizing fraudulent asylum claims and using a lawyer involved in criminal activities to do it.”
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