They paid $ 20,000 to travel illegally to the US, this is the way many Albanians have chosen to travel to the US, Canada and Great Britain equipped with false passports.
10,000 dollars were paid at the time they received passports and plane tickets, while another $ 10,000 after arriving in America was paid via an American bank account.
The Italian police of Perugia city in cooperation with the US Homeland Security Border Police executed the operation "Overtime" which hit the Italian-Albanian criminal group that organized false passports of Albanian citizens in order to travel illegally towards the United States.An FBI agent attended this investigation yesterday which is extended in three states, Albania, Italy and the US, identifying 36 Albanian citizens who entered the US territory with counterfeit or stolen Italian passports.
3 persons are arrested: an Albanian citizen P.P., 37 years old and two Italians, 47 and 44 years old.
Since 2013, through a tourist agency owned by Italians, they organized travels of Albanian citizens to America, Canada and Great Britain. Sometimes the payment was made in installments and, in case of delay, the family members were threatened with violence, Albanian media writes.
According to Italian police, the Albanian citizen was the person who provided the Italian passports, stolen or forged. This criminal group had some logistic bases in Albania.
Today, the 37-year-old Albanian has been questioned by the Italian prosecution and his lawyer David Zaganelli stated that he will cooperate with the Italian justice by confessing the full scheme of this criminal activity
The accused used the Viber system to communicate between them.