As part of various enforcement actions carried out between 15 and 18 January, PSP officers responsible for border control made 10 arrests for document forgery, 2 for the use of another person’s document, 1 for aiding illegal immigration, and executed a European Arrest Warrant (EAW) for drug trafficking offences.

During the same period, PSP officers stationed at Humberto Delgado Airport in Lisbon refused entry to five individuals through the Schengen area ban.

A police source told the Lusa news agency that the EAW was issued by the Italian authorities and that the detainee is of Senegalese origin.

The defendant arrested under the EAW was brought before the competent judicial authority for questioning and is awaiting the extradition process in the temporary detention rooms of the Lisbon Metropolitan Command of the PSP, within the framework of European judicial cooperation.

The 10 arrests for document forgery were made over several days and resulted from the use of counterfeit passports and travel documents, detected during document checks at the airport border, according to a statement from the PSP, explaining that these “show the persistence of the use of false documentation as a means of attempting to enter or move within the Schengen area”.

The same police source told Lusa that five of the 10 detainees are of Vietnamese origin.

In two of the arrests, passengers attempted to use legitimate documents belonging to third parties in order to circumvent border controls.

In the statement, the PSP highlights the arrest of a foreign citizen last Thursday, 15 January, for the crime of aiding illegal immigration.

The PSP adds that the police intervention began with the detection of a passenger in the arrivals area whose statements led to the identification of a scheme to aid illegal immigration based on the use of false Spanish passports.

During the investigation, the PSP explains, it was possible to identify the Spanish citizen who was coordinating the situation, as well as four other foreign nationals associated with the same circuit.

The suspect was arrested and heard in court, while the five foreign nationals involved were refused entry into national territory and banned from entering the Schengen area for a period of three years.

Four of these foreign nationals have already been removed from national territory, and the coercive removal, with the use of an escort, of a woman who refused to voluntarily re-embark for her country of origin is scheduled.