Mafia groups sell foreign identity card appointments for €100–€2,000, police warn
Senior police officers alert Interior Ministry to collapse of system for processing foreign identity cards (TIE) following mass regularisation, worsened by criminal gangs that monopolise and resell online appointments.
Mafia groups sell foreign identity card appointments for €100–€2,000, police warn
Senior National Police officials have raised concerns with the Interior Ministry about an imminent collapse in the processing of foreign identity cards (TIE), according to reporting by El Mundo. The bottleneck will emerge when the department headed by Elma Sáiz transfers extraordinary regularisation files to the Police involving more than 1.2 million people.
Agents specialising in foreign affairs describe the procedure as extremely slow for both applicants and police personnel. The cause lies in the accumulation of applications, a lack of human and technological resources, and interference by criminal networks in the appointment booking system.
Investigators have established that IT technicians monopolise appointment slots on the platform using automated procedures and then resell them. The charges requested range from one hundred to two thousand euros. Once the user pays the fee, the criminals register their details, leaving the appointment marked as occupied but pending formalisation, which prevents other applicants from accessing it.
Sources consulted indicate that this modus operandi "contributes to and worsens the system collapse". Calculations by senior foreign affairs officers put at three million the number of immigrants who will move to legal status within twelve months, including family reunification cases.
Police chiefs fear that criminal organisations will also exploit family reunification, with foreign nationals paying legal residents to present them as close relatives by means of false certificates and documents.
The General Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and Borders had already drawn up a harsh report on the reform, signed by central chief commissioner for operations Alfredo García Miravete, which warned of "significant negative effects" including "social mistrust".
Source: El Mundo