The national police in an operation in Tarragona in northeast Spain caught a criminal group tied to document fraud and migrant smuggling, the EU Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation (Europol) said on Monday.
The suspects are believed to have been involved in smuggling over 400 illegal migrants, mainly of Albanian origin, through Spain and Portugal into the United Kingdom, providing the migrants with forged French identity cards.
As part of the operation, two house searches were carried out, 18 individuals were arrested, and counterfeit documents, financial documentation, records of the illegal activities, electronic equipment, cash, and various illegal drugs like cannabis, cocaine, and synthetic drugs were seized.
