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Barajas airport in Madrid. EFE/Rodrigo Jiménez
Arrested in Alicante for Selling Passport to Immigrant for Illegal Entry into Spain

Arrested in Alicante for Selling Passport to Immigrant for Illegal Entry into Spain

The National Police caught the document buyer at Barajas airport border control | This irregular entry method is known as 'look alike'

Alejandro Hernández

Alicante

Viernes, 10 de enero 2025, 07:28

The scheme of a irregular immigrant from the Sahara to attempt a 'legal' entry into Spain via the airport at Barajas has been uncovered and halted by the National Police, as reported by TodoAlicante. The young man attempted to pass the border control with another companion—both Saharans, holding Algerian passports—using Spanish documentation. However, the officers suspected potential illegality, as confirmed by police sources to this newspaper.

The method the young African attempted to use for illegal entry into Spain is known in police jargon as 'look alike', where irregular migrants try to pass border controls using valid passports of compatriots who are naturalised in Spain and bear a reasonable physical resemblance.

To clarify suspicions, police officers took the two foreigners into a room for identification. After investigations, they confirmed that the Spanish documentation the young Algerian tried to use at the control was not his own but belonged to a 19-year-old Mauritanian citizen, naturalised in Spain, residing in the Alicante town of Petrer.

Upon uncovering the ruse, the National Police in Madrid contacted the Central Unit for Immigration Networks and Documentary Fraud (Ucrif) in Alicante to continue the investigations. The officers have begun proceedings to check if the passport had been stolen.

Upon verifying there was no report and that the document owner had not left the country, he was summoned to the police station, where he was arrested for a crime against the rights of foreign citizens with facilitation of illegal immigration.

The same sources specified to this newspaper that both the 21-year-old Saharan who attempted to illegally enter Spain and his companion have been deported. The Saharans, as the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic is not widely recognised, use Algerian or Mauritanian passports to travel.

In the 'look alike' scam, passports, once stamped with entry and exit, are sold and reported as lost. Thus, the buyer, if the trick succeeds, can enter and leave the country as often as desired. However, this was not the case here, as the National Police uncovered the illicit manoeuvre.

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todoalicante Arrested in Alicante for Selling Passport to Immigrant for Illegal Entry into Spain