33 suspects under investigation as Armenian security services bust illegal immigration syndicate

As part of fighting transnational organized crime, the National Security Service of Armenia has discovered and terminated channels of organizing illegal immigration in 2017, whereby criminal syndicates comprising Armenian and foreign citizens attempted to illegaly transport citizens from Central Asia and the Middle East through the territory of Armenia to Schengen Area countries, the US, Turkey or other countries. The syndicate also used fraud to organize the exit of Armenian nationals from Armenia to the abovementioned countries.

The National Security Service told ARMENPRESS that the investigation also discovered cases of illegal immigrants residing in the country and illegal obtainment of temporary residence permits.

33 suspects are included as defendants in the criminal case, including 25 Armenian and 8 foreign nationals. Two of the suspects are at large.

The organized crime group would charge from 350-10,000 dollars from the foreigners to organize their illegal transportation, including documents.

In one case, the syndicate organized the transportation of Uzbek and Kyrgyz citizens though Armenia to Turkey, who were earlier deported from the same country.

Particularly, in accordance to a scheme of the syndicate operating in Armenia, Iran and Turkey – citizens of Central Asian countries who were deported from Turkey earlier would arrive legally to Armenia, where the syndicate would make fake Armenian passports for them. The immigrants would later use their legal passports to exit Armenia, but would switch to the fake ones upon arriving to Turkey.

Another similar attempt was prevented on January 15, when security services detained two foreign nationals, accompanied by an Armenian, at the state border with fake passports.

The National Security Service issued a warning saying that the service is fighting illegal immigration consistently.