Two Hague residents accused of running fake passport ring

Two men were arrested in The Hague on suspicion of running a large fake passport ring. According to the Public Prosecutor, they made false passports identity documents on a large scale, which were later used for human trafficking, among other things. The arrests were made on Tuesday. The suspects are two local men aged 45 and 50 years, the Prosecutor announced on Friday. On Monday the Koninklijke Marechaussee, a policing force that works as a branch of the military, searched two homes and a tea house. The prosecutor believes the tea house served as a meeting place for the suspects. Large sums of money as well as data carriers, such as USB sticks and hard drives, were seized. The case came to light when the marechaussee noticed that several Dutch identity cards seized in Spain, Britain, Germany and Belgium between 2010 and 2013 were forged in the same way. A forensic investigation led the authorities to the 50-year-old suspect.