Police in south Cyprus arrest individual over fake marriage documents to obtain permit

Greek Cypriot police said it arrested two people in Paphos in connection with a case involving forged marriage documents used to obtain residency permits. 

A third person is also wanted in relation to the case.

According to Paphos police spokesperson Michalis Nikolaou, a 41-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman visited the local immigration office on Monday afternoon to register their marriage and secure the necessary documentation for residency in the Republic.

Among the documents they presented was a marriage certificate from a European country.

After questioning the couple, suspicions were raised about the authenticity of both the documents and the marriage itself, Nikolaou told the Cyprus News Agency (CNA).

The 41-year-old later admitted that the documents were fake and that he had never married the 19-year-old. He also identified a 29-year-old permanent resident of Cyprus as the person who arranged for the woman to come to the island and who allegedly produced the forged documents to present to the immigration office to secure legal residency.

Both the 41-year-old man and the 19-year-old woman were arrested under court warrants for conspiracy to defraud, conspiracy to commit a felony, forgery, circulating forged documents, and attempting to secure registration through false pretences. The 29-year-old is currently wanted.

Earlier this year, Europol’s Operational Task Force (OTF) Limassol, led by Cyprus and supported by Latvia, Portugal, and Eurojust, carried out a coordinated action targeting a criminal network involved in facilitating illegal migration into the EU through sham marriages.

This operation revealed that the network, consisting mainly of Indian, Pakistani and Portuguese nationals, was involved in a broader range of criminal activities, including human trafficking and money laundering.

The network orchestrated marriages between non-EU nationals, predominantly from India and Pakistan, and Latvian and Portuguese women. These marriages allowed the men to acquire residence permits in Cyprus, which they then used to enter other European countries.

According to Europol, the network’s modus operandi was to recruit Latvian and Portuguese women and transport them to Cyprus, where they entered arranged marriages with third-country nationals.

The group handled all logistics, including purchasing flight tickets, and acquiring necessary passports and documents. The investigation uncovered a total of 133 such marriages, with ceremonies taking place in town halls around Aradippou, Livadia and Nicosia.

The OTF’s efforts culminated in 15 arrests, 13 of which were made in Cyprus, alongside further arrests in Latvia and Portugal. Notably, four high-value targets were apprehended, two of them in Cyprus, with the other two captured in Latvia and Portugal following European arrest warrants issued by Cyprus. Alongside the arrests, investigators seized electronic equipment and documentation related to the marriages.

Cyprus Mail