Illegal Migration: Man caught selling forged EU visas
Man caught selling tampered Schengen visa stickers for up to Rs700,000 each.
The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) Punjab chapter has caught a man red-handed selling tampered Schengen visa stickers for up to Rs700,000 each, sources in the agency told The Express Tribune.
During interrogation, the suspect revealed that he was part of a gang based in Pakistan and Kenya that had sold over 150 tampered visa stickers for over Rs800 million, the sources said. Holders of Schengen visas can travel to all or any of 15 European countries including Germany, France, Italy and Spain.
A team of investigators of the FIA’s Anti Human Trafficking Circle kept the suspect, identified as Shehzad Qaiser Abbas, under close surveillance and pounced as he struck a deal to sell a forged visa sticker to a citizen. They also seized eight visa stickers from him.
Abbas later told interrogators that there were six others involved in the scam, including Lahore residents Faheem, Razzaqullah and Qudratullah, Gujranwala residents Asgher Baloch and Arif, and a man named Naeem Shah based in Kenya.
Abbas said that Shah would provide original Shengen visa stickers from Kenya. A case has been registered against Abbas under Section 18 of the Immigration Ordinance 1979 at the FIA AHTC Lahore police station.
Published in The Express Tribune, May 24th, 2011.