RABAT, July 19 (Xinhua) -- Moroccan security services have busted a large network operating in falsification of documents and illegal migration, the Moroccan Interior Ministry announced in a statement on Thursday.
A total of 16 people were arrested in this operation, including an Algerian national and a woman.
The operation began at Morocco's Mohammed V airport in Casablanca with the arrest of two candidates for illegal migration in possession of false documents while they were preparing to embark on a flight heading to a European country.
This arrest then led to the nabbing of 14 other people suspected of the same network that targets its victims among young people dreaming of immigrating abroad.
During the operation, security services seized seals of several foreign and Moroccan embassies, passports, falsified tax stamps, documents of residences of foreign countries.
Equipments and devices used in falsification, cars, sums of money and mobile phones were also confiscated.
According to Morocco's Interior Ministry, security forces arrested some 50,000 illegal migrants in 2017 and dismantled over 70 organized illegal migration networks.
