Another Hague official arrested for selling passports, driver's licenses

A 32-year-old municipal official from The Hague is in custody for selling false passports and driver’s licenses. The examining magistrate extended his pre-trial detention by 14 days on Monday, the Public Prosecution Service (OM) said on Tuesday.

Early this month, licensing department RDW noticed that the photo on a newly applied for driver’s license did not correspond with previous images on the system. The RDW reported this to the municipality of The Hague, who went to the police. The Rijksrecherche, the department that handles investigations at government services, launched an investigation.

The Rijksrecherche arrested the man on Wednesday. He has been working for the municipality of The Hague as a temporary worker since March. “It is suspected that he supplied false papers for payment. How many times he has done this is unknown at this time,” the OM said.

This man is the second Hague official suspected of falsifying passports. According to Omroep West, 50-year-old Mildred van D. allegedly sold 22 fake passports to criminals, including suspected criminal kingpin Ridouan Taghi, between 2009 and 2014.