According to the German media, action was launched on Tuesday when German and Portuguese police simultaneously swooped on a number of properties believed to be connected to an organisation involved in the promoting and setting up of fake marriages to facilitate the entry of Nigerians into Europe.
Nigerian men reportedly paid up to €13,000 for a sham European bride, namely Portuguese women, who would return to their homeland a few days after officialising proceedings in Germany.
On Tuesday morning, hundreds of German officers conducted dozens of searches targeting the couples who entered fake marriages so the ‘husbands’ could obtain residency in the EU.
According to Lusa News Agency, per Deutsche Welle (DW), around 41 apartments were raided in the German cities of Berlin, Potsdam, Frankfurt and Görlitz.
A man and four women were reportedly arrested during the police action, with a series of passports, residency permits, mobile phones and IT equipment being seized.
Similar action was also carried out at the same time in Portugal, according to the Associated Press, although little has emerged in this country about the action here.
Citing a source close to the investigation, DW reported the criminal organisation would contact Nigerian men looking to reside in the EU and secure a Portuguese bride for them.
The men would reportedly pay around €13,000 for marriage certificates that were forged in Nigeria and then presented to German authorities, accompanied by an elaborate love story confirmed by the Portuguese ‘wife’, who would usually return to Portugal after a few days.
A police source explained the house searches aim to establish whether the couples’ ‘homes’ were in fact being lived in by a couple.
German authorities are cooperating with Europol in a bid to prove the marriages were in fact fake.
It was the second large operation of its type carried out in Germany in the past few months.
In June, German police uncovered a network of ‘fake fathers’ made up of German men who were paid to put their names on the birth certificates of immigrant children from places including Vietnam, and Africa and Eastern European regions.
The babies were immediately granted German citizenship, meaning the mothers could also seek residency permits.