Czech police bust international gang forging IDs

Prague, Aug 31 (CTK) - The Czech police unit fighting organised crime has launched prosecution of an international group seated in Prague and Brno over suspected forgery of identity documents and distributed them to other European countries, its spokesman Pavel Hantak said Friday.

The 17-member group was headed by five men from Albania and Bulgaria who have been based in the Czech Republic. It also includes several Ukrainians, a man from Egypt and a Czech woman. Fifteen suspects have been taken into custody.

Hantak said the suspects include persons who practically controlled the black market with false identity documents in the past ten years in the Czech Republic and partly also abroad.

Three forgers' rooms in Prague and one in Hungary were revealed within the case.

The group produced not only Czech passports, identity cards and driving licences but also IDs from Belgium, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, the Netherlands, Slovakia and former Soviet republics. The group sold a set of identity documents for 1500-1800 euros.

A standard check would not reveal that the IDs were forged, Hantak said.

The whole business was based on absolute trust between the forgers, the distributors and the clients.

The forged documents were bought by refugees, for whom the new identity opened the way to the Schengen area, and by persons who sought a new identity to flee their home country and avoid criminal prosecution or who tried to cover crimes they planned to commit.

The suspects may end up in prison for up to 10 years.

($1=19.862 crowns)