A network that offered fraudulent domestic partnerships to obtain residence permits has been taken down.

BarcelonaPolice raided a gang that offered fraudulent civil partnerships to obtain residence permits in Spain and operated in the Barcelona and Girona regions. The network dismantled by the National Police was primarily involved in trafficking Moroccan nationals by formalizing fraudulent civil unions before a notary between these individuals seeking to enter the country and Spanish citizens. In total, 37 people were arrested, seven of them foreigners.

The network, made up of around ten people with a leader and a core of collaborators with very defined roles, operated as follows. On the one hand, in Spain, some women were in charge of recruiting young women with Spanish nationality who were willing to charge around 1,000 euros to establish a civil partnership with a stranger before a notary. On the other hand, Moroccan citizens sought out foreign citizens (often fellow Moroccans) who would pay up to 10,000 euros to form a civil partnership with these women and thus qualify for Spanish nationality.

During the more than six months of the investigation, the police discovered how the foreigners arrived in Spain just two days before the union was to be formalized, handed out false registration certificates, and created a false cohabitation situation. As a result of the investigation, the police found 132 files of fraudulent civil partnerships organized by this organization. The group obtained a financial profit of more than one million euros.

Based on these clues, the police informed the judicial authorities and arrested the main leaders of the organization. In total, nine people were arrested and two searches were carried out in Tarragona and Girona, where computer and telephone equipment, as well as documentation related to the civil partnerships, were seized. In the following weeks, 28 more people were arrested for completing these procedures.