As a result of Operation Praga, the police have arrested nine individuals from India, Czech Republic, Spain and Pakistan for various crimes such as the falsification of documents, infringing the immigration law, encouraging illegal immigration and being part of an organised criminal gang.
The police operation was launched at the beginning of May after a spike in the number of citizens from India applying for residence in the European Union on the grounds that they are married to women from Eastern European countries which are part of the European Union and the Schengen area.
The majority of the so-called wives and family members were from the Czech Republic who, in exchange for large sums of money, passed themselves off as wives of the Indians applying for EU residency.
According to the National Police, all the women were required to do was travel to Palma, where they had previously obtained a residence permit and an alleged property, their properties in fact belonged to the gang members, and sign the necessary paperwork, before returning home quickly in order to avoid being caught by the National Police.
The operation remains ongoing and the National Police said yesterday that further arrests are not being ruled out here in Majorca and elsewhere in Eastern Europe.
