Ghana embassy staff arrested in Madrid for counterfeiting

At the head of the organisation was a Ghanaian citizen, whom the agents had been following for years: "He has a history of fraud, forgery and drug trafficking".

Passports for 600 euros, residence permits for 300 and driving tests for 2,000. These were the fees of a criminal organization dedicated to falsifying documents, a network that was dismantled Wednesday after 46 people were arrested in 11 cities.

According to El Confidencial, sources from the National Police, the body that has taken charge of the operation together with the Mossos d'Esquadra, told El Confidencial that the tentacles of the plot reached the Ghanaian embassy, where two of its workers were in charge of providing them with all kinds of documents.

The organisation was led by a Ghanaian citizen, who had been followed in his footsteps for years. "He has a record for fraud, forgery and drug trafficking," the sources consulted explain. The man also had a Nigerian lieutenant who stood out in the criminal world for his ability to make counterfeits.

"He has been arrested on other occasions for forgery of documents and counterfeiting of coins. Compared to other forgeries, his work is quite good, and he was also very cautious in his movements, which made it difficult to monitor," the National Police said.

Below both the organization consisted of dozens of people whose function was to offer the Ghanaian community all kinds of counterfeits in different parts of Spain, as well as transport them from one place to another. To this end, the network went so far as to infiltrate the Ghanaian embassy in Madrid, an institution from which two workers provided them with documents that they could not acquire on the black market.

The Confidential has contacted the diplomatic corps of this country before publishing the news, but so far has not received any response from them. Both workers were also arrested in Wednesday's operation.

According to the Ghanaians in Madrid, this corruption has been happening in the Embassy since 2012.

Translated by Grace Evans