An official of the admission service of foreigners to the prefecture of Meurthe-et-Moselle and several other people were arrested on Tuesday, January 21. These arrests are part of a survey on trafficking in documents in the administrative regularization procedures of foreigners, the Nancy prosecutor's office confirmed on Thursday.
In September 2024, the Nancy antenna of the Office to Combat Illicit Traffic by Migrants (OLTIM) had been informed of the existence of false documents in an administrative regularization file of a foreigner. According to François Capin-Dulhoste, public prosecutor of Nancy, “checks on the documents of the files confirmed the existence of false”. A few weeks later, on November 19, 2024, the prefecture reported to justice the presence of “Parts of a fraudulent nature in ten other regularization files”specifies a press release from the prosecution. These files had all been processed by the same civil servant of the foreigners service.
Their placement in pre -trial detention required
The preliminary investigation, carried out jointly by OLTIM and the Interdepartmental Directorate of the National Police (DIPN) of Meurthe-et-Moselle, made it possible to identify fifteen fraudulent files. According to the prosecutor, “The sum of around 25,000 euros being claimed for each of these files”.
On January 21, the accused official was arrested, as well as certain alleged accomplices and foreigners who benefited from fraudulent regularizations. At the end of the police custody, the official and a person suspected of having played the role of intermediary were referred this Thursday at the Nancy prosecution. Their placement in pre -trial detention was required.
-Judicial information was opened for “helping entry, traffic or irregular stay of organized gangs, passive corruption, false and use of false administrative documents, fraudulent obtaining of administrative documents”. The objective of this procedure is in particular “To identify the members of the sector, to establish their respective implications, to update the exact magnitude of the financial flows and to enter the product of the offenses”said François Capin-Dulhoste.
